Water bill surcharge waiver extended till August 15
The Delhi Government has extended the deadline for its water bill surcharge waiver scheme to August 15, Delhi Water and PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma said on Friday, while noting that more than three lakh people have availed the benefits of the scheme till now. According to him, more than 16 lakh customers in the domestic category have pending water bills.
Since the scheme’s rollout, consumers have already availed rebates worth Rs 1493 crore, and Rs 430 crore has been successfully collected by the DJB in revenue, the Delhi water minister said. “More than 3.30 lakh consumers have already availed the scheme, leading to the waiver of nearly Rs 1,500 crore in penal interest, while over Rs 430 crore in principal dues has been successfully collected till January 29,” he said.
Noting that 3,30,000 customers have availed the benefits of the late payment surcharge waiver scheme on water bills, he said the Government aims to recover Rs 5,000 crore in pending dues of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), waiving late payment surcharge to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore.
“Buoyed by the strong public participation and on the demand of elected representatives, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), and consumers across Delhi, the Government has now decided to extend the LPSC Waiver Scheme till 15 August, allowing more citizens to clear long-pending dues without the burden of inflated interest charges,” the minister said.
Also, there are several problems in DJB’s billing system, due to which people who want to avail themselves of the scheme cannot do so. Now we were trying to fix the problems.”
“We expect recoveries to rise significantly after the next billing cycle, once consumers receive updated bills reflecting the waived surcharges,” Verma said further.
On October 14, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced a complete waiver of late payment surcharges of water bills for domestic consumers till January 31.
The Government is also planning to start water Lok Adalats, where billing-related issues can be sorted out on the spot, he added.
Under the new scheme, consumers are required to pay only the principal amount, while the entire surcharge is being waived off as a one-time relief measure.
“The Government has also taken serious note of the massive pending dues from non-domestic consumers, including Government offices and private establishments. Nearly 87,000 non-domestic connections have outstanding principal dues of over Rs 2,068 crore, reflecting years of weak enforcement and financial mismanagement,” he said.
He also pointed out the requirement of equipment and staff for smooth functioning.” At our ZRO office, where bills are submitted and complaints are filed, we now need to upgrade. If there is one cashier, then we should increase the number.
Yesterday, we saw a cashier counting the cash manually. There was no machine that counts the cash. So, to end this, the cash counting machine should be provided. Our focus will be on improving our entire system so that more people can make payments online, the Minister further stated.
