No infrastructure, but why cess?

No infrastructure, but why cess?
The Times of India

Bangalore: When there is no infrastructure, how can a cess be imposed? With this reasoning, the infrastructure cess that had been proposed early 2005, has been kept in limbo.

Government sources said the cess, applicable to all vehicle users, has been deferred by another year. They say the cess is unlikely to be levied at all. “When people complained last year about the pathetic infrastructure, it didn’t make sense to impose infrastructure cess,’’ add sources.

According to the initially framed rules, all vehicle users in Bangalore would be slapped with an annual cess — Rs 50 on two-wheelers, Rs 100 on three-wheelers, Rs 300 on four-wheelers, Rs 400 on medium and heavy vehicles and Rs 500 on goods vehicles.

The cess was supposed to have come into effect on April 1, 2005 and the BMP had great expectations of raking in Rs 20 crore as revenue from this cess. “This money would specifically cater to road-related infrastructure,’’ the BMP had said.
This is not happening for two reasons — this being BMP’s election year, corporators don’t want any new tax on the electorate, however minor. Also, because to this day, the logistics like mode of collecting the cess, whether it is applicable to BMP city limits users only, whether vehicles that come from Tumkur, Kolar, Hoskote would also be included, have not been worked out.

On February 24, 2005, the BMP passed resolutions approving levying and collecting infrastructure and solid waste management cesses from citizens. While solid waste management cess has been approved and is being implemented since January 2006, the proposal of infrastructure cess is still gathering dust.

The cess was conceived with the idea of making the road user pay for the roads. “Citizens want flyovers, good roads, but there was no source of revenue. So it seemed feasible to charge road users,’’ explain BMP officials. The resolution consequently spelt out ‘how much’ and not the how, when, where.

CESS-POOL TRIVIA
l CVS implementation deferred by another year thanks to BMP’s election year l Infrastructure cess proposal with govt. No pressure from the BMP to implement it. l 4,200 km of roads in city limits vis-a-vis 22 lakh vehicles l Special Purpose Vehicle proposed to cater to specific road projects.