Mangaluru : The Congress-ruled Mangaluru City Corporation has introduced four new cess in the budget for 2016-17, though the party had promised during the election campaign in 2013 that it would not introduce new taxes.

Traders will now have to pay solid waste management cess while obtaining trade licence. Harinath, chairman, Standing Committee for Taxation, Finance and Appeals, who presented the budget, said that the cess also applied to renewed trade licences. The corporation expected Rs. 3 crore as annual revenue from this.

Starting from next month, those who use underground drainage (UGD) facility of the corporation will have to pay Rs. 15 a month for residential buildings as UGD cess. It is Rs. 25 a month for non-residential buildings, Rs. 50 per month for commercial buildings, Rs. 100 a month for industrial buildings. The civic body expected an annual Rs. one crore revenue from the UGD cess.

Widening its horizon of revenue collection, the corporation has imposed cess on those who allowed installing telecom towers on top of their buildings.

According to the corporation, there were more than 500 such towers on top of buildings in the city. Owners of such buildings would have to pay one month’s rent amount which they were collecting from the telecom service providers, to the corporation as cess.

The civic body expects an annual revenue of Rs. 30 lakh from this.

Mr. Harinath said that telecom service providers would have to pay Rs. 50,000 cess per km for installing underground cable in the city from next month onwards. It was because many companies which were digging roads were damaging them and their beauty. It expects an annual revenue of Rs. 2 crore from this.

The budget slashed SWM cess imposed on residential buildings.

In order to achieve cent per cent collection of property tax the budget proposed that it would outsource property tax collection from the coming financial year.

The agency would be fixed by calling bids.

Reviving the old proposals Mr. Harinath said that the corporation would construct markets at Kavoor and Alake. A market building would be built at Kaikamba, near Kulashekara, in association with Karnataka Coastal Development Authority. Market buildings would be built at Urwa Stores and Urwa Market in association with Mangaluru Development Authority.