Gurgaon: Amid growing confusion over the payment of garbage collection charges linked to property tax bills, MCG has clarified that no exemption will be granted.MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya told TOI that the levy should not be viewed merely as a garbage collection fee. “These are solid waste management charges, which also cover sweeping of roads and other sanitation-related expenses. Residents will have to pay these charges,” Dahiya said, adding that MCG’s annual expenditure on sanitation is around Rs 350 crore.The clarification comes after weeks of uncertainty, with many residents questioning whether the charges were mandatory. Several resident welfare groups have argued that the civic body has failed to provide satisfactory sanitation services, including door-to-door waste collection and regular road sweeping, making the additional charge difficult to justify.Residents have also questioned why a separate sanitation levy is being imposed when they are already paying property tax and, in many cases, monthly maintenance charges to their housing societies.“When we are already paying property tax so that the municipal corporation provides civic services, why do we have to separately pay for garbage collection or sweeping? We are paying monthly maintenance charges and then property tax, and now, on top of that, a garbage collection charge is also being imposed on us,” Sanjay Agarwal, a resident of Sector 109, said.Amit Goswami, a resident of Princeton Floors in Sector 51, said residents in his society have opposed the charges from the beginning. “Gurgaon is now being called a garbage city because of the current sanitation. We have been managing our society on our own since the builder exited in 2013, with virtually no support from the MCG. There are around 350 households in our society, and we were clear from day one that we would not pay these charges when the MCG is not providing any services,” Goswami said.“Earlier, the payment portal allowed residents to pay property tax and garbage collection charges separately, so most residents chose not to pay the sanitation component. These charges are being imposed on us unnecessarily,” he said.Residents also pointed to poor road-sweeping standards, one of the key services that MCG says is covered under the solid waste management charges.“Even if these charges are meant for sweeping roads, the MCG is not doing its job properly. Contractors often do not turn up regularly and, when they do, the quality of work is poor. So what is the purpose of paying these charges?” asked Lalit Suraj Bhola, a resident of Sector 9A.The controversy is also likely to intensify as the civic body moves towards outsourcing door-to-door waste collection to private agencies under five-year contracts. When asked whether residents would have to pay separate user charges for door-to-door waste collection once the agencies begin operations, Dahiya said a decision on that aspect would be taken later.MCG earned revenue of more than Rs 350 crore from property tax in the 2025-26 FY. For the 2026-27 FY, MCG has set a target of Rs 325 crore in income from property tax.
