The Times of India           16.11.2013

Mysore City Corporation wakes up to poor show in water tax collection

MYSORE: Mysore City Corporation is targeting water tax defaulters to generate revenue.

Reason: the total dues have shot up to Rs 80.46 crore, and the civic body has been finding it hard to take up works and to pay the contractors. Of the Rs 80.46 crore dues, domestic consumers owe a lion's share of Rs 60 crore, while non-domestic ones owe Rs 9.31 crore. Surprisingly, city police also owe Rs 2.35 crore.

The MCC, besides issuing a directive to the defaulters to pay the dues, has also threatened to cut the water supply. The civic body's empowered taxation, finance and appeals standing committee has welcomed the move and asked the officials to follow it up. The dues have accumulated due to the alleged negligence of Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW), the water-supplying arm of the civic body. "But the consumers should not be targetted. They should be given the option of paying in five instalments," panel chairman B L Bhyrappa told reporters on Thursday.

Non-issue of monthly water bills in many areas is part of the reason for the accumulation of the dues. "I had asked for a bill for my JP Nagar residence about a year ago. But I have not got it till now. This shows how negligent the officials are," he claimed.

Another reason for the mess is the decision to hand over bill collection to Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco), a Tata enterprise, which is implementing Rs 194 crore remodelled water distribution network project, he said. "What VVWW was doing is now being handled by the Jusco. There is a lack of co-ordination between them, which has resulted in the problem," he added.

According to the figures released by Bhyrappa, Muda has Rs 7.31 crore dues till September-end. In all, the total number of defaulters is 1.08 lakh. Of them, a little over 1 lakh are domestic consumers, while 2,678 commercial users owe Rs 6.05 crore. As many as 208 industrial users have also defaulted to the tune of Rs 3.55 crore, while 4,723 non-domestic consumers owe Rs 9.31 crore.

Bhyrappa said that the railway authorities owe Rs 85.98 lakh, and Mysore Palace Board Rs 6.69 lakh.

Poor show

MCC has projected a revenue of Rs 417.44 crore this fiscal with water taxes being projected to fetch Rs 32.30 crore. However, VVWW has continued its track record of poor performance.

But the financial sheet presents a different story. During 2012-13, MCC expected VVWW to generate Rs 72.18 crore water taxes, and it was later revised to Rs 26.11 crore. VVWW could not give the desired results even after water consumers were waived of interest. This comes amidst impressive performance by the revenue department, which has posted over 90% of the projected target.