Bogota’s Public Lighting Enters Modernization Phase With New Tax

Bogota, Colombia is transitioning into a more modern and innovative city through the implementation of a new smart public lighting system. This project, approved by the City Council in Agreement 724 of 2026, aims to replace over 100,000 streetlights with LED technology and introduce advanced infrastructure featuring sensors, remote management, and monitoring capabilities. These enhancements will extend beyond lighting, supporting aspects like security, mobility, environmental management, and emergency response.

Armando Ojeda, the director of the Special Administrative Unit of Public Services (UAESP), explained that Agreement 724 of 2026 will transform certain streets by eliminating unused networks and organizing infrastructure, thereby reducing the number of cables near residential facades and undergrounding them. One key aspect of the modernization is the installation of remote management nodes on each lighting point, enabling remote control of lighting intensity and schedules.

This will lead to more efficient and precise management of public lighting, as well as quicker detection and repair of failures.

Additionally, air quality sensors, fire sensors, and security cameras will be installed on the poles, expanding the city's monitoring capabilities. One of the primary objectives is to connect more video surveillance and security cameras to Bogota's C4, enabling the prevention and timely identification of criminal activities while ensuring faster responses to emergencies such as fires, floods, and other natural events.

The modernization of public lighting is projected to generate energy savings of up to 70% compared to existing sodium-technology streetlights. The Bogota City Council aims to obtain the necessary funding for these improvements through a surcharge associated with the unified property tax. This surcharge will apply only to socioeconomic strata 4, 5, and 6, with residential properties in these strata facing a rate of 0.4 per thousand on the taxable base used to calculate the property tax.

The Mayor's Office has provided average estimates for the impact of this charge. In stratum 4, the monthly amount would be approximately 11,000 pesos (US$3.3); in stratum 5, around 19,000 pesos (US$5.7); and in stratum 6, approximately 29,000 pesos (US$8.7). Importantly, the new charge will not appear monthly on the electricity bill, as it will be tied to the annual property tax assessment rather than the monthly electricity or power service bill.

Beyond residential properties, the proposal also considers applying the surcharge to commercial, industrial, and financial properties, contingent on the conditions outlined in the project. The Bogota District Administration projects that the measures will attract 78.3 trillion pesos (US$23.541 billion) in private investment and generate 215,000 jobs over the next decade.

Additionally, the project aims to reorganize part of Bogota's tax structure, with one of the central points being the provision of a specific source of revenue for public lighting modernization.