HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) plans to go fully ‘cashless’ over the next two months, having decided to receive bill payments only through the digital mode.
Around 30 per cent to 40 per cent of consumers not availing the 20KL free water scheme still pay their bills in cash, and the Water Board wants to do away with this practice once and for all, by encouraging online and UPI payments.
After the introduction of the 20KL free water scheme, the monthly revenue of the HMWS&SB has dropped to around Rs 70 crore per month, of which Rs 50 crore is ‘cashless’. Over 60 per cent consumers are availing the 20KL free water scheme, which leaves about 4.5 lakh Consumer Account Numbers (CANs) being billed on a monthly basis. Of these, 46,000 come into the ‘non-domestic’ consumer category who pay around Rs 67 crore.
“Earlier, the problem we faced in going completely cashless was slum dwellers. Now, all slum dwellers are availing the 20KL free water scheme. This has encouraged us to go for cashless transactions,” a Water Board official told Express.
Accordingly, meter readers will visit each household and serve an electronic copy as well as a manual bill to consumers who can use any of the payment apps available or visit e-Seva or MeeSeva centres to pay their bills.
The HMWS&SB has already introduced a self-billing system where a handful of consumers are taking the meter reading and paying their bill online.