Building owners who comes within the Greater Chennai Corporation will have to pay user charges to the civic body for removing garbage from January 1 as per Solid Waste Management Rules, 2019. Covid 19 lockdown postponed the move to collect user charges which was planned to start from April 1. The Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said that the Solid Waste Management Rules which the civic body drafted was approved by the State government through an order dated January 10, 2020, and it was published in the Chennai District Gazette on February 11. 

According to the new rules,  the civic body would collect user charges based on the size and usage of buildings. Residential building with built area up to 500 sqft would have to pay Rs 10 per month the civic body. For residential buildings with built area between 501 sqft and 1,200 sqft, the fee would be Rs 25. The charge would be Rs 50 and Rs 100 respectively for residential buildings with a built-up area between 1,201 sqft and 2,400 sqft, and residential buildings above 2,401 sqft. 

The user charges would be calculated on a monthly basis, but the building owners would have to pay the charges only once in six months along with property tax. The rough estimation by officials of the civic body calculated Rs 60 crore to Rs 70 crore per year by collecting user charges. Other than Garbage user charges, the civic body would also collect penalties for littering in public, non-segregation of waste, burning of solid waste and littering in waterbodies. The penalties would range from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000.

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