The Hindu     14.01.2015    

Water tax arrears tangle for GVMC

Water tax arrears continue to saddle the cash-strapped GVMC so much so that they account for more than the current year’s demand.

Of the Rs.27 crore pending, arrears for 2014-15 are a whopping Rs.13 crore. Last year’s tax payment was poor with not even a quarter of the demand of Rs.16.5 crore being realised. The arrears are only from individual domestic tap connections that include below poverty line (BPL) families. The current year has better compliance with Rs.4 crore of the total demand of Rs.14 crore demand realised. However, officials who have decided to issue notices to pay up or face disconnection are now making a distinction between arrears and current demand. Disconnection notices are being issued only to the arrears of last year, Superintendent Engineer (Water Supply) Moses Kumar told The Hindu . Even those notices are issued to only assessments where the amount is more than Rs.5,000, he says. The individual tap connections are a total of 1.63 lakh. No interest is levied on delayed water tax payment.

Meanwhile, for some payments remitted at two eseva centres wrong entries have been made. As a result, those who paid the bills faced disconnection after GVMC began issuing notices, it was learnt. “It’s a software problem. Officials have taken it to the notice of higher-ups for a solution,” Additional Commissioner (Finance) S.S. Varma said.