THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Come January 1, the non-domestic consumers of Kerala Water Authority will be able to pay their drinking water bill dues via online only. Government offices and PSUs are the largest consumers of KWA and they owe close to Rs 300 crore to the PSU.
The decision to enhance online payment among non-domestic consumers was taken at the board meeting of the KWA. The board meeting has also decided to maintain one cash counter if there are more cash counters on campus. But it has been decided to close down the cash counters of KWA which are functioning near Akshaya Centres. Currently, domestic consumers whose water bill comes below Rs 500 can make the payment over the cash counter. A senior KWA official told The New Indian Express that already domestic consumers are finding it difficult to make their payments through Akshaya Centres.
“Not all are tech savvy to make their water bill payment online. So when cash counters are not working, domestic consumers who approach the Akshaya Centres have to pay a service charge of Rs 10. This has not gone down well with a large section of domestic consumers”, said a KWA official.
A whopping Rs 1130.26 crore was pending until May towards water bill arrears. But steadily it started coming down as per the statistics provided by the KWA. In July, the KWA was having water bill arrears of Rs 913.37 crore which includes both domestic and non-domestic consumers. However, when the KWA introduced the amnesty scheme in July, it was further reduced to Rs 739.68. The amnesty scheme will be available till December.
The KWA was scheduled to introduce a ‘self meter reader app’ aimed at domestic consumers from November 1. But it has been further pushed to December. A KWA top official informed TNIE that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is scheduled to launch 82 labs which have got the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) accreditation under the KWA later next month. He is then expected to launch the ‘self-meter reader app’ as well.