Deccan Chronicle 11.01.2010

Water board prepares to increase charges

Jan. 10: In an effort to bridge the widening gap between its revenue and expenditure, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is preparing ground to hike charges after a gap of seven years.

The Board hopes to raise at least Rs 10 crore more revenue per month after the hike. At present, it gets Rs 30 crore per month as water charges whereas the outgo on monthly expenditure is Rs 45 crore.
Three different sets of proposals have been prepared and will be placed before the Board for final approval in the last week of January.

Presently, there are six tariff slabs, wherein Rs 6 is charged per KL for consumers using up to 15 KL of water per month, Rs 8 per KL for those using 16-30 KL, Rs 15 per KL for those using 31-50 KL, Rs 20 per KL for those using 51-100 KL, Rs 25 per KL for those using 101-200 KL, and Rs 35 per KL for those using more than 200 KL.

In the first set of proposals, officials plan to hike charges for the high-end consumers, leaving intact the first slab covering BPL and middle-class families.

The second set proposes to exclude only the white-card holders. In the third set, authorities are contemplating to raise charges across the board for all categories.

The high-end users are not spared by any of the three slabs. There are nearly 2 lakh consumers in the high-end consumer category.