Private Diagnostic Labs Warn of Closures Over ‘Excessive’ Sanitation Fees

Private diagnostic laboratories in Srinagar have raised serious concerns over what they describe as arbitrary and excessive sanitation and pollution-related charges, warning that the mounting financial burden is pushing many small laboratories to the brink of closure.

- Observer News Service

The Kashmir Private Diagnostic Centres Association (KPDCA) has now sought the urgent intervention of Minister for Health Sakeena Itoo, demanding immediate relief and a rollback of what they term as “unaffordable and unjustified” fees.

According to the association, the sanitation fee imposed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) was increased manifold in 2019, with no corresponding improvement in services.

Before September 2019, diagnostic laboratories were paying around Rs 1,800 annually as sanitation charges. However, a revised tariff issued on September 18, 2019, fixed the sanitation fee at Rs 2,000 per month, amounting to Rs 24,000 per annum, irrespective of the size or scale of the laboratory, the association said.

The sanitation fee has effectively been increased more than tenfold at a time when our businesses were already battered by economic slowdown,” a member of the delegation representing diagnostic labs told KNO.