Housing societies that go green to get rebate on property tax

MUMBAI:In an another attempt to reduce the burden on the old and over-burdened landfills in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wants to give

MUMBAI:In an another attempt to reduce the burden on the old and over-burdened landfills in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wants to give a rebate to housing societies, which work towards reducing that burden.

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The scheme will not only consider the amount of waste that the society segregates or processes. Under the scheme, if a society segregates waste into wet and dry, processes it through composting or any other method, has reduced its energy consumption by using solar panels, uses grey water and has in turn reduced its consumption of potable water, will get the discount.

“All the visible parameters will be assessed. For example, an electricity bill that can show the reduction in bill owing to the society’s use of green methods will get the rebate.,” said a senior civic official.

The BMC which began its ‘Clean Society, Green Society’ scheme in August, has drawn some guidelines to provide the discount in property tax. The complexes that eliminate the entire amount of waste collected, transported and disposed, will get the highest rebate.

Housing societies’ green initiatives will be inspected annually and then the discount will be considered. BMC, in 2002, had made it mandatory for new constructions above 1,000 square metres to install rain water harvesting, a scheme that failed. BMC is now trying to promote it by including it in the list for rebate on property tax. “The rebate will depend on how the societies have reduced the three-step work of the civic body i.e. collection, transportation and disposal of the waste,” said BJ Pawar, deputy municipal commissioner, assessment and collection.

The formal housing societies and complexes account for around 30% of the daily generation of waste within city. The purpose of the scheme is to reduce the burden of garbage on the dumping site. Currently, tall the three dumping grounds have reached their full capacity.

“It is a good initiative. Officials need to make sure that is thoroughly implemented or it will lead to corruption,” said Raj Kumar Sharma, ALM, Chembur, who began waste composting with various housing societies.