MC proposes to fix one time deadline for payment of bills

Ludhiana:The Municipal Corporation has decided to recover the dues from water supply, sewerage and disposal charges from residents with a fixed deadline on the lines of property tax. For this purpose the MC officials are now planning of dispatching bills twice and getting those distributed. But for implementing this proposal they require the approval from the elected representatives as well. As per officials, MC is serving bills to 1.20 lakh consumers in the city and every six months the bills are first prepared, printed and then dispatched to the households. There is shortage of staff to distribute the bills and stationary too is wasted in printing of bills. Every year the recovery from the water supply and sewerage dues remains low from the set targets therefore some kind of alternative arrangement is being contemplated.
The officials claimed that they can link the water supply and sewerage dues collection system with property tax collection and when people will pay their property tax they can clear other dues as well. It will not only save people’s time but also help the civic body in recovering 60 percent of the dues by September end only. For the property tax payment the MC has fixed September 30 and if people deposit tax by September they also get 10 percent rebate. After that there is no rebate till December and after December there is provision of penalty.

The MC superintendent Vivek Verma said, “This proposal is under consideration because it will prove beneficial for the residents as well as the MC. We will save time, employees and most important paper which get wasted in printing of bills twice for the water supply while for disposal charges the bills are being dispatched four times in one year.” He said they will take up the proposal with mayor Balkar Sandhu after elections and if they get approval they can implement it from this year only.