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.