The recent hike in power tariff has put the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) in a position where a tariff hike for water, it says, will be inevitable. The board says the power tariff hike will have a negative impact on its expenditure, increasing its financial stress.
According to a senior BWSSB official, even with a hike of 25 paise, the BWSSB would have to bear ₹10 crore to ₹15 crore extra per month just on paying towards electricity.
“The electricity bill, including that for pumping water, takes up a third of the revenue. The average domestic charge is ₹7 per kilolitre up to 8,000 litres and ₹11 from 8,001 to 25,000 liters,” an official said.
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“Earlier this year, we had proposed to the State government a revision in tariff and we are awaiting a decision on it. The last time we revised tariff was in 2014. We had then revised the tariff by 20%. Operational costs since then have increased a lot with various new projects in place, and internal revenues have stagnated,” the official said and added, “Since we work on no-profit, no- loss basis, any amount of loss would be an extra burden on us and the burden just piles up.”
The BWSSB raises around ₹120 crore from consumers every month and around ₹30 crore goes for operational costs and around ₹12 crore for payment of salaries, and most of the rest of the amount goes towards electricity. While the BWSSB bears the operational costs, project costs are borne by the government.
The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) recently approved a revision of electricity tariff with an average increase by 40 paise per unit.
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