The proposal of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to hike water tariff has been put on hold for a month.
BWSSB’s proposed hike was discussed at the board meeting here on Wednesday. The board members, including Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Development Department D. Satyamurty, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana and Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner T. Sham Bhat, have sought more details from BWSSB before considering the request for the tariff hike, sources said.
BWSSB had proposed to increase the water tariff by 50 per cent for domestic consumers and more than 50 per cent for the non-domestic and commercial consumers. BWSSB justified the proposal by stating that the water tariff had not been revised in the past decade, and it had become necessary to increase it as electricity and diesel rates have gone up.
Sources said that the board members have sought a detailed report on BWSSB’s revenue, capital expenditure and where the shortfall was.
The BWSSB officials have also been asked to submit a detailed report comparing the prevailing water tariff to that in other metropolitan cities in the country. This will help them take an informed decision, work out a realistic hike after taking into account the BWSSB’s fiscal health and social and political angles. This procedure may take another month to be completed, sources added.
BWSSB chairperson M.S. Ravishankar said during 2013-14, the board’s revenue was Rs. 756 crore. Though this is Rs. 176 crore more than the revenue during 2012-13, BWSSB continued to incur a loss of around Rs. 220 crore as the expenditure was put at Rs. 976 crore.
“The loss is due to increased operational costs, hike in power tariff and diesel costs,” he said.
Meanwhile, informed sources told The Hindu that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had directed the board to go slow on the proposal to hike water tariff.
They said that with the recent hike in the fares of buses run by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, and power tariff and toll, the common man is already burdened.
The Chief Minister has asked the board to go slow on the hike proposal also due to increasing criticism from the Opposition parties and the common man.
