NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Tuesday announced a one-time waiver of water bill arrears and late payment surcharge for all consumers in the national capital. Under the scheme, pending penalties and arrears will not be collected from consumers if they have a functioning water meter by November 30 this year.
According to the government, in the long run, this exercise will help increase the number of legitimate consumers with a metered connection, in both domestic and commercial categories.
The waiver will be available only to consumers with a functioning meter.
According to the plan, the scheme will waive water arrears in A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H category areas in different proportions.
Kejriwal will send letters to the consumers encouraging them to get a functioning water meter.
“This scheme will encourage more people to come into the mainstream, which will further help in achieving our goal of providing 24/7 water to people of Delhi in the next five years.
Currently in Delhi under the domestic category around Rs 2,500 crore is due in arrears.
Many people have complaints about wrong, inflated or late bills. In many cases, arrears have been piling up for years.
We see revenue of Rs 600 crore from this. A total of 13 lakh people are expected to benefit out of this scheme,” said Kejriwal.
The government further stated that Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had 95 per cent billing efficiency, adding that the agency had adopted a new method, whereby tabs were given to its field inspectors for meter reading.