Visakhapatnam: people are not against payment of user charges for garbage collection, says GVMC commissioner

VISAKHAPATNAM

Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner P. Raja Babu has said that the citizens are not against the payment of user charges for garbage collection, and are voluntarily paying them. He said that the corporation has conducted a survey in which these facts were revealed.

Fielding a volley of questions on user charges at a media conference here on Tuesday, Mr Raja Babu said that the revised user charges as per property tax slab rates would be collected as soon as once the software was updated. He also said that it has come to his notice that some volunteers were threatening people that government welfare schemes would be stopped, if they failed to pay the user charges. He said that the volunteers were warned against resorting to such tactics. The corporation would also create awareness among the volunteers in this regard, he said.

Mr Raja Babu also said that there were instances of some volunteers failing to remit the amounts collected from the citizens to the GVMC. The amount which has to be remitted to the corporation by the volunteers was to the tune of ₹6 lakh. To streamline all such issues and provide bills or payment receipt to the residents, an app would be brought out soon, to enable payments by the taxpayers themselves, he said.

On the death of sanitary secretary B Chandramohan at Zone IV, the GVMC Commissioner said that he was also an employee of the GVMC and a letter was sent to the government regarding payment of compensation to his family members.

The Commissioner also said that the corporation has collected about ₹228 crore revenue out of targeted revenue of ₹383 crore till date during this financial year. This shows that the corporation has already collected 60 % of the total targeted revenues for this financial year. Compared to previous year, the GVMC was able to collect additional amount of around ₹67 crore, he said.

Mr. Raja Babu said that the corporation has targeted collection of long-pending arrears. Out of around ₹100 crore arrears, the GVMC has already collected ₹35 crore, while the remaining would be collected in course of time. In the coming years, the corporation would not only after collection of revenue from parking lots, shops revenue, trade licences and building plans, but would also look at other revenue sources for the development of the city.