The Hindu : Kerala News : Scheme to settle water bill arrears

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Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
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Kerala

Scheme to settle water bill arrears

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Kerala Water Authority has announced a one-time settlement scheme for non-domestic consumers with long-pending water bill arrears.

At present, they are charged a 2 per cent penal interest on the arrears every month. The compound interest usually comes to almost 28 per cent a year.

There are consumers who have not paid even for 10 years, according to Susan Jacob, Chief Engineer (Central Region) of the authority. They may not be getting water or the connection may not be live. But they remain ``unsettled'' in the authority's accounts.

Ms. Jacob said the arrears from non-domestic consumers totalled Rs. 19 crore in the central region, comprising Ernakulam, Thrissur and Idukki districts and parts of Kottayam.

The authority has evolved the "one-time settlement scheme" to speed up collection of arrears by encouraging consumers to make use of the benefits, such as waiver of 2 per cent penal interest a month. The interest rate will come down to 14.5 per cent a year.

Interested consumers should contact the assistant executive engineers of the authority in their local areas. The regional Chief Engineer will take the decision on the applications. The authority has set up a system to settle them within three to five days.

The scheme was opened on October 5 and it will remain in force till November 18.

The bills of the consumers whose applications are accepted will be revised according to the new interest rates and the consumers have to make the payment within three days of the issue of the bill.

In case the consumers have any complaints, the Chief Engineer will hold an adalat for settling them. In such cases, the field records will be examined.

Last year, the KWA collected a total amount of Rs. 50 lakh in the central region during the one-time settlement scheme, according to Ms. Jacob. This year, it expects to collect Rs. 1 crore, she said.

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