Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: Be prepared to shell out more to use the civic body’s services. In the near future, you may have to dig into your pockets to visit a park, and dig deeper while parking your vehicle.

The municipal corporation is considering a proposal to start collecting user fees to lift solid waste, from shopkeepers in vending zones and people visiting parks.

The civic body might also collect enhanced fees for the use of parking lots, issue of certificates for birth, death and marriage and holding tax from private kalyan mandap owners.

The proposal is being considered as the civic body aims to generate more funds and thus become self-sufficient.

However, a sub-committee under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner is still deliberating on the amount of the fees.

Once the amount and the enhanced fee structure for the services rendered by the civic body are decided upon, the sub-committee will submit its report to the municipal commissioner. After it is tabled before the municipal council, the municipal authorities will send it to the state government for final approval.

The proposed users’ fees will include parks. So, if you intend to visit a park maintained by the municipality, make sure your pockets are not empty. You will have to pay a fee, even though you can, at present, walk into a park without paying a dime.

Similarly, vending zones that are operating in the civic area do not paying any money to the municipal corporation. But if the sub-committee gives its nod, vendors will be asked to pay monthly or weekly users’ fees. They will be asked to pay according to the area they are using and the solid waste that is generated from their unit.

Sources said there were 43 vending zones in the city according to the civic body’s records, but in reality, nearly 10 more were operating without the necessary permission.

Chairman of the sub-committee and corporation deputy commissioner Krushna Prasad Pati said: “The collection of users’ fees was necessitated as the Union urban development ministry has written a letter to the Odisha government to ask the civic bodies to generate funds from their various schemes and services and decrease dependence on central funds, such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, from which they are getting crores of rupees.”

Pati, however, explained that the strategy was to devise a mechanism for the civic bodies so that they would become self-sufficient financially with regular income generation from their own infrastructure and projects.

A senior municipal official said: “Municipal corporations such as Mumbai spend around 65 per cent of their annual budget on vehicles, oil and salary.

Though at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) we have spend about 35 per cent or even lower, solid waste transport takes up a large chunk. If we can levy collection charges as user fees for solid waste lifting, the corporation can earn some money to lessen the fuel cost on transportation.”

With users’ fees collected from the 23 colony parks across the city, the civic body will have even less cause to worry about money. However, of the 23 parks, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation does not own major parks and many parks lack infrastructure such as rides and toilets.

Corporation environment officer Bikram Keshari Routrai said the civic body wants to privatise the users’ fee collection in parks through organisations in public-private-partnership mode.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, however, rejected the idea to collect users’ fee for services that are not yet charged.

“Some services are already being charged. But we cannot charge fees for all services. It is not possible now as we are about to go to polls this year.”