The Hindu              21.06.2013

WATER BOARD TO STRIKE HARD

The Water Board, now armed with powers to attach movable
and immobile properties, will first zero in on consumers owing more
than Rs. 75,000 to it.

There are 800 big defaulters
who owe Rs. 70 crore in bills. These are bulk consumers whose
connections have been severed for non-payment. “We will target them
first,” said J. Syamala Rao, Managing Director, HMWSSB.

The
mood in the cash-strapped Water Board is upbeat after the government
issued two GOs arming it with powers to recover dues. The GO 326 has
delegated Tahsildar’s powers to the Board’s General Managers
(Engineering) under the A.P. Rent and Revenue Sales Act, 1839 for
recovery of dues.

The GO 327 also authorises Deputy
General Managers to attach movable and immovable properties of
defaulters and sell them to recover dues. There are nearly 1,800
consumers owing than Rs. 75,000 to the Board, with the total dues coming
to Rs. 135 crore.

Thereafter, those owing up to Rs.
50,000 will be targeted. The Board has outstanding dues of nearly Rs.
800 crore. Of this, government departments owe Rs. 160 crore, while
there is a dispute over payment of Rs. 100 crore. Nearly Rs. 150 crore
is caught in BIFR-referred cases.

“We could only
disconnect supply till now, but now we have powers to recover the
arrears if necessary through attachment of property,” Mr. Rao added.

The
Board has decided to invoke the Revenue Recovery Act to realise its
arrears. It has already served 300 ‘red notices’ to chronic defaulters,
and if they fail to respond, they would be proceeded against under RRA.
The matter has been referred to the Chief Commissioner of Land
Administration (CCLA), and the Board is awaiting the government’s nod to
go ahead.

However, till then it plans to take the
help of Collectors of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts to recover the
dues under RRA. The Board has taken recourse to this stern measure in
view of its mounting dues. However, even before the Act is imposed in
its totality the red notices are proving effective in bringing in
revenue.

For the first time in its history, the Board
is able to cross the barrier of 4 lakh paid CANS (Consumer Account
Numbers). In March, a record 4.04 lakh consumers, out of 8 lakh, paid
their bills, pushing the Board’s monthly revenue to Rs. 53 crore. The
last highest number of consumers who paid bills in a month is 3.82 lakh.
The Board aims at netting an average monthly revenue of Rs. 60 crore by
raising the number of paid CANS per month to 4.3 lakh. “Achieving this
target will be easy with the recruitment of 90 new managers soon. They
have been selected through APPSC,” said Syamala Rao.

The
Board has identified 1,632 consumers who owe more than Rs. 1 lakh in
arrears. The Board is in the process of compiling a list of 20 such
defaulters in each division for forwarding to the District Collectors
for recovery of dues under RRA.

This apart, the Board
is now more worried about its rising power bill. With the latest hike
in power tariff, the Board’s power bill is expected to jump from Rs. 34
crore to Rs. 48 crore a month. This figure may go up further when the
Board starts pumping water in the days to come as the falling water
level in reservoirs makes drawal by gravity impossible. When the power
tariff was last revised on December 1, 2011, the Board was paying Rs. 24
crore per month.

Interestingly, the Board itself
owes a whopping Rs. 180 crore towards power bill arrears. But right now,
it is able to pay only the current month bills. All these issues are
proposed to be discussed in the next Board meeting, and they will also
be taken up with the Municipal Administration Minister, it is said.

GO
327 authorises Deputy General Managers of Water Board to attach movable
and immovable properties of defaulters and sell them to recover dues.