This comes in the wake of the board’s
finances having plummeted to a record low, and its revenues being
insufficient to meet its expenditure.

The board incurred heavy
losses due to hike in power tariff, but the previous government turned
down all proposals to revise the water tariff, though BWSSB is
authorised to hike tariffs.

The tariff was last revised in
February 2005. Since then, BWSSB’s expenditure on power has increased by
46 per cent and the cost of establishment has increased by 144 per
cent. Also, the interest paid by the board on loans has increased by
more than 400 per cent, an official point out.

Current Tariff Inadequate

According
to sources, the current tariff is inadequate to compensate the cost of
water supply to consumers. BWSSB had a deficit of Rs 1.66 crore when the
tariff was last revised. Since then, the deficit has increased every
year.

BWSSB’s deficit in 2010-11 stood at Rs 165.18 crore and came
down to Rs 148.8 crore in 2011-12. BWSSB lost `239.4 crore between
2008-09 and 2011-12 just by not hiking the water tariff proportionately
with power tariff hikes.

Despite severe financial crunch, BWSSB
has undertaken various capital works, including developing
infrastructure under Cauvery drinking water project to meet the
increasing demands for water,  implementation of Cauvery IV Stage II
Phase drinking water project, and providing UGD in the newly-added
areas, officials said. 

Though the government is funding Cauvery
IV Stage II Phase project, BWSSB has to pay the interest on the loan
taken to implement the project. Due to the financial-crunch, BWSSB is
unable to undertake many works like replacing old and worn-out water
lines, they add.