The Hindu 03.04.2013
Steep hike in VMC water charges
Charges will be enhanced every year by a minimum of 7 per cent, it says.
Barely five days after presenting the 2013-14 budget sans any
proposal on water tariff revision, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation
(VMC) has very steeply hiked the water charges saying it had to
rationalise the water tariff. The hike ranged between 87 per cent and
585 per cent for above poverty line (APL) families and 90 per cent for
below poverty line (BPL) families.
The VMC also stated that the
charges would be enhanced every year by a minimum 7 per cent over the
previous year’s charges with effect from April 1 of every year. The
billing and collection would be done once in two months. The corporation
had de-linked the water supply charges and sewerage charges from
property tax demand notices. Hereafter, the water and sewer charges
would be collected bi-monthly.
The VMC officials said the last
revision of water supply was effected in 2004 when the operation and
maintenance expenditure on water supply was Rs. 9.69 crore. The demand
was Rs. 8.88 crore then, and the gap was a mere Rs. 0.80 crore.
At present, the demand was Rs.11.50 crore, while the O&M was Rs.29.33 crore.
There
is a gap of Rs. 17.83 crore between demand and O&M costs. The cost
of power, staff, chemicals, and fuels has increased substantially in the
last eight years. The O&M charges have increased substantially
impacting the finances of the corporation, the officials said.
Reacting
to the upward revision, CPI(M) city secretary Ch. Babu Rao said it was
unfortunate that the VMC was ready to put a burden of Rs. 19.83 crore on
the people. The VMC was already putting huge burden on various
pretexts.
The Congress government had no concern for the people.
It criticised the Municipal Commissioner for claiming that the water charges were hiked as part of JNNURM reforms.
The CPI(M )would not keep quiet if the hike was not rolled back, he said.
