Even as GVMC is about to step out of the comfort zone in water supply with summer approaching, it is saddled with mounting water tax arrears. Faced with chronic default, it is now issuing notices to customers to either pay or get the water connection cut.
It's an ironic situation with a large number of domestic consumers paying property tax but not water tax. Better property tax compliance is on two counts: it attracts penal fee at compounded rate of interest and sometimes they face the prospect of water connection being cut if property tax is not paid. As a result domestic water tax arrears piled up to a whopping Rs.27 crore.
A part of the amount could be due to duplication of bills after an apartment was constructed on the site where individual house was located earlier. Roughly such duplication may account for Rs.5 crore, say sources. That still leaves arrears of Rs.22 crore.
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The total number of domestic connections is 1.6 lakh of which BPL connections account for 52,000. That still accounts for nearly 1.1 lakh assessees and a part of them may have already paid. But the number of defaulters is quite big going by the arrears, says an official. A few defaulting payees cannot run into such huge arrears, he explains. A rough estimate is that payment for around 35 to 40 per cent of the 1.6 lakh water connections are in default.
The GVMC has already issued a general appeal to pay the water tax to assesses. “Now individual notices are being prepared to pay up in a week or face disconnection. And the distribution has already begun,” say sources.