The government’s decision to raise tariff for those consuming more than 10,000 litres of drinking water a month will impact majority of the consumers of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) in the city.
Data available with KWA reveal that of the 2.12 lakh consumers, only around 86,000 consume less than 10,000 litres every month. A good number of the consumers come under the 10,000-20,000 litres a month and 20,000-30,000 litres a month categories. “The monthly bill is likely to go up by around 50 per cent for most of the consumers,” a senior official in the KWA told The Hindu .
The water utility calculates that on an average a person consumes 3,000 to 5,000 litres a month. “So if a family has more than three members the water consumption would cross the 10,000 mark every month,” said the official. Paraniyam Devakumar, general secretary of the Federation of Residents’ Associations Trivandrum, said the 50 to 60 per cent hike imposed by the government would have a huge impact on the monthly budget of the common man. “The hike means that from next month we are going to pay double the amount for the water consumed. People are already burdened with the rise in prices of essential commodities,” he added.
Instead of increasing the tariff as a measure to shore up revenue, the water authority should have taken steps to collect the huge dues incurred by non-domestic consumers and government departments, he said.
The KWA is of the view that the hike has been pending for long as the tariff for domestic consumers was last revised in 1999 and for other categories in 2008. The utility collects around Rs.32 crore as water tariff from domestic consumers every year, the official said, adding the hike would help earn another Rs.10 to 12 crore annually.
On the criticism of KWA failing to collect pending arrears, the official said Rs.38 crore was collected from non-domestic consumers and Rs.7 crore from government departments.
