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Kerala
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Thiruvananthapuram
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran said here on Wednesday that the revision of water charges would fetch additional revenue of Rs.135 crore a year for the Kerala Water Authority. The hike would help to partially bridge the revenue gap of the Authority. The revenue expenditure of the Authority now came to Rs. 428 crore a year. The annual revenue was only Rs.282 crore. The Minister said that the Authority had no means other than increasing the water charges to pay its electricity bills. The power tariffs had been revised several times since 1999 while the water charges remained the same. Currently, the Authority needs about Rs.16 crore a month to pay the electricity bills. Mr. Premachandran noted that the revision had spared the poor. The revenue loss on account of free water supply to the poor would be about Rs.15 crore a year. The water supply projects in the State were designed to provide per capita supply of 70 litres a day per person in the urban areas and 40 litres a day per person in the rural areas. The revision was scientifically undertaken to keep the rates low for those consuming water at those rates. He said that the hike was attempted in addition to administrative measures to realise arrears and reduce loss of water. The Water Authority supplied 1,791 million litres of water a day and 30 per cent of these were not fetching revenues. This loss was to be reduced to 15 per cent. For this, steps would be taken to replace old pipes and improve the quality of pipes being laid. Stringent action was being taken against theft of water. The Minister said the State currently had 11.45 lakh water connections. Connections to BPL families might come to nearly one lakh.
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