Waste fee: Cleanliness tax likely to be imposed

Officials say it will be enforced during term of interim govt.

LAHORE:

The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has almost completed paperwork required to impose a cleanliness fee in the city. The fee would likely be enforced during the term of the interim government setup, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Officials said that the two drafts that had been sent to Punjab government were returned to the LWMC for improvisation. Officials have revealed that the Punjab government currently did not want to involve itself with a taxation issue and wanted to defer the decision till the interim period. They said that since the interim government will have no political stakes, it would impose the tax without any hesitation.

Lahore Waste Management Company managing director Waseem Ajmal told The Express Tribune that they hope to impose the tax when the interim government is set up. He said two proposals had been sent to the government and that paper work was complete.

Ajmal said the fees on residential areas would be based on District Collector value. He said.



He said that a proper formula had been developed to assess the value of the fee. He said that they would not rely on assessment teams as they create loopholes. He said that an “innovative style” of fee collection would be developed, indicating that a card could be introduced.

Ajmal said that Albayrak has taken over 39 of the 68 Union Councils (UC) they had been allotted while Ozpak has taken over 35 UCs out of 70. He said that Albayrak would take over all of their allotted UCs by the end of December while the Ozpak would take over all of its UCs by the second week of January. Out of 150 UCs, the Turkish companies will take over 138 UCs, while the LWMC will manage the remaining 12.

MOU signing ceremony

The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) in collaboration with World Wild Life Fund (WWF) hopes to reach 10,000 students cross Pakistan to educate them on proper waste disposal and its positive impacts on health and the environment.

An MoU was signed between the LWMC and the WWF at the latter’s head office in Gulberg in presence of Albayrak and Ozpak representatives. LWMC managing director Waseem Ajmal and WWF director general signed the MoU on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2012.