The Lusaka City Council has approved the introduction of a monthly levy or tariff bundling that will force mobile subscribers to pay for refuse collection.

The council has confirmed the levy will be sourced from deductions off mobile top ups, used to fund waste management and efforts to keep the city clean.

Lusaka City Council deputy mayor Chilando Chitangala said the council is currently in consultation with the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) on the relevant laws and procedures to be followed regarding the new tariff.

The regulator will have to give final approval, with a directive on the amount that each subscriber will have to pay, when the deductions will be made and how the council will receive payment from operators.

Mobile phone subscribers are already paying more for airtime following the increase in exercise duty on airtime from 15% to17.5% through the 2017 national budget.

"Although we have already approved the tariff, we have not yet come up with the figure that each mobile phone owner will be paying monthly because we are still discussing the matter with ZICTA. But it will be a fixed figure that will be affordable to everyone," Chitangala said.

ZICTA has so far not responded whether or not the levy is likely to be replicated nationally if other councils applied.

The Lusaka City Council is currently grappling with the problem of garbage collection in the city and claims to not have sufficient funds to buy cabbage collection trucks and other cleaning equipment.

According to ZICTA, the Zambia mobile market currently has a combined total of close to 11 million customers with South Africa's MTN in the lead with over 5 million customers.

To date, none of the mobile operators have commented on the tariff.