The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has revised the water tariff. The hike hovered between 87 to 585 per cent for above poverty line (APL) families and 90 per cent for below poverty line (BPL) families.
The corporation even introduced late payment fee of Rs. 15 to Rs. 60 for both APL and BPL families. The penalty, till now, is being levied only for residential metered and non residential metered connections.
The BPL families, hitherto paying Rs. 50 per month, will have to pay Rs. 80 per month. Of this, Rs. 70 is water charges, and Rs.10 is service charge. A fine of Rs.15 will be levied if paid after due date. And, the APL families will have to shell out anywhere between Rs. 150 to Rs. 470 depending upon the category in which they fall.
The VMC, for the APL families, has created five categories based on the property tax --- (i) Rs. 176 to Rs. 500; (ii) Rs. 501 to Rs. 1,000; (iii) Rs. 1001 to Rs. 1500; (iv) Rs. 1501 to Rs. 5,000; (v) and above Rs. 5,000.
The water charges will be Rs. 150 for first category is fixed as Rs. 150, inclusive of a fine of Rs. 30, while the chares for second category are Rs. 215, inclusive of fine of Rs. 30. The third category assesses will have to pay Rs. 260 including a fine of Rs. 50, and Rs. 380 (inclusive of fine of Rs. 60) will have to be paid by fourth category. If the property tax is more than Rs. 5,000 per half year, the water charges will be Rs. 470 per month, including a fine of Rs. 60.
A steep hike is seen in residential metered connections (group houses and apartments) also. At present, the VMC is collecting Rs.100 plus meter reading charges of Rs.12 for people who are consuming between 0 to 3 KL. Now, they will have to pay Rs. 300 plus meter reading charges of Rs.20.
The VMC is charging Rs. 8.25 per KL now; the charge will be Rs. 12 per KL for consumption above 9KL; Rs. 15 per KL for above 18 KL; Rs. 20 per KL for above 25 KL; Rs. 25 per KL for above 50 KL. In addition, the minimum charges of Rs.300 to Rs. 1013 will be levied depending upon the consumption.
