BENGALURU: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is left with unpaid water bills of over Rs 147.5 crore, with defaulters being government departments, led by the police, defence and Railways.
With a monthly collection of Rs 110 crore as water and sanitation bills, the water board runs on a no profit-no loss basis, said a top official. It depends on bill payment to carry on its daily affairs. Statistics on arrears up to May 2022 reveal that the police department owes BWSSB Rs 49.73 crore, Defence Rs 26.43 crore and Railways Rs 18.73 crore. Banks, Postal and Telecommunication Department, PWD, maternity homes, public urinals, Education, Forest and Horticulture departments and BBMP figure among defaulters.
Unlike in the case of individual consumers, BWSSB refrains from disconnecting the service to government departments as a large number of staff and the public could get impacted, said a top BWSSB official. “Water charges have remained the same for over a decade, but our power charges due to pumping of water have doubled to Rs 70 crore per month now. We depend a lot on our bill collections,” he added.
Nisha James, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Administration, said that since April 2020, the Police Department has been paying the water bills regularly. “The pending bills are the legacy that we have inherited. Earlier, all families staying in the quarters paid the same bill and there was some opposition to it. That has been changed now with families paying only for the water they consume. It is not possible to track our past residents, many of whom have retired, and make them pay,” she said. The water board must waive off these charges as they include penalty for non-payment, interest and fines in connection with rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment plants, she added.
Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division, Kusuma Hariprasad said the Railways paid up all its monthly bills. “The Division paid Rs 22 crore for water bills for the last financial year and has earmarked Rs 23 crore for this year. What is still being billed in our account is the penalty and interest on that. This sum needs to be waived off,” she added. She said that in fact, BWSSB owed the Railways Rs 28 crore over the last three years for non-payment of ‘Way Leave’ charges for using its land to lay pipelines.