Wednesday, Nov 10, 2004
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2004 |
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By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, NOV. 9. The new "rationalised" water tariffs announced by the Delhi Jal Board today not only bring in enhanced monthly water bills but also a slew of additional charges and penalties. The Board has also decided to take up 100 per cent metering of water and complete the process by March 31 next year. Under the new water tariff regime, the cost of water supply to New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Military Engineering Service (MES) areas would also stand "rationalised" leading to an increase that would be worked out by the agencies concerned. According to the approval given to the new proposals at the meeting of the Delhi Jal Board held under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, no charges are levied for a fresh water connection at present. However, under the new regime, water connection charges would be levied on all new connections. For category I of domestic consumers, the new connection charges will be Rs. 2,500, for the category II of semi-commercial outlets, the connection charges would be Rs. 4,000, and for the purely commercial category III, it would be Rs. 6,000 per connection. In the case of domestic consumers, there would be a provision for making payment of connection charge in four quarterly instalments. Levying of connection charge would help in recovery of money invested in expansion of the network. As part of the above cost, the Delhi Jal Board would provide composite services for plumbing to the customer inlaying pipelines at their doorstep. On the issue of misuse of water connection for other purposes than it has been sought, stringent penalties have been recommended by the Board. According to officials, there have been instances where a consumer had been using a water connection for category II purposes and applied for a category I connection. In all such cases, the consumer would be levied a penalty of Rs. 10,000 apart from charging arrears at the relevant rates. This would serve as a disincentive for wrong declaration by the consumer about the intended usage at the time of application. Also, officials said once the Board declared a cut off date for metered supply after initiating the 100 per cent metering campaign, any consumer having an un-metered connection would be charged at double the rates notified for the relevant category on average billing basis. The average billing basis would be decided by the concerned zone based on the consumption of previous 12 months or a reasonable assessment of water consumption based on usage evident on ground. As for the ground water, officials pointed out that groundwater in Delhi had receded from about 2 to 5 metres to 8 to 12 metres. Therefore there is an urgent need to regulate the groundwater extraction being done through tube wells. The Board will now charge Rs. 1,500 per horse power as one time charge from tube well owners for ground water extraction subject to clearance from the Central Government. As for the bulk water charges to NDMC and MES, the Board will now rationalise its assessment of total expenditure to include the cost of depreciation and interest payable. Thus the total expenditure would then be divided by the total number of kilolitres supplied to entire Delhi and then multiplied by the amount supplied to the respective agencies. According to officials, the new measures and tariff hike is likely to fetch Rs. 412 crores after proper implementation per year compared to Rs. 142 crores during 2003-04.
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