Karnataka government turns down BWSSB proposal to hike water tariff once every three years

BENGALURU:  The state government has sent back to the drawing board the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s draft of the new Water Tariff and Meter Policy calling for major changes to be effected in it. The key recommendation spelt out by the government was that the hike in water tariff could be possibly effected once every five years, but not every three years as proposed. The meeting between top officials of BWSSB and the government took place at the Vidhana Soudha recently. 

According to a highly placed source, the key observation of the government was that a commodity like water had a “social value attached to it by the public.” It called upon the board to consider other methods of augmenting its resources rather than hiking water bills.  

“The State told us that it could permit hiking the water tariff once every five years. Increasing the rate every three years was ruled out,” the source said. BWSSB had readied the new policy in October 2017 and submitted it for the government’s approval. Unlike electricity bills which are periodically increased, hike to water tariff are effected sporadically and after long gaps. The previous revision in water tariff took place on November 2, 2014, after a nine-year gap. 

“BWSSB keeps paying two electricity departments in the State the hike effected in power tariff but our tariffs remain the same thereby causing us much revenue loss,” an official said. “To reduce our loss and recover some of the investment made in our big projects, we made this proposal,” he added. The policy draft, however, did not specify any specific percentage of hike to be effected and wanted it to correspond to the power tariff and infrastructure costs at any given time.

Effecting a hike in water bills becomes a sensitive issue for any government in power and hence the requests by BWSSB to increase them at periodic intervals are routinely rejected by the State. “We are hoping to put in place a policy so that the hike automatically takes place at regular intervals,” another official told The New Indian Express at the time of framing the policy.

Due to the need to pump water to the city from Thorekadanahalli reservoir, BWSSB presently pays KPTCL and CESC a water bill that ranges between `33 crore and `36 crore every month. This works out to one-third of its monthly revenue of `100 crore collected. The government had also suggested going in for more consultations with the public before the BWSSB submits its final draft.