Telangana: State, central departments leave water board poorer by Rs 1,519 crore

HYDERABAD: Several state and central government departments are the biggest defaulters of water bills and collectively owe the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) Rs 1,519 crore, a right to information (RTI) reply has revealed.
While the state government departments owe Rs 1,267 crore, the central departments have pending dues of Rs 252 crore to the water board. Mission Bhagiratha is the biggest defaulter with Rs 601 crore, followed by panchayat raj (Rs 594 crore) and health (Rs 42 crore) in the state.

"The main source of revenue for water board is from water charges. Citizens are regularly paying the charges. The problem is with government institutions," said Forum for Good Governance (FGG) secretary M Padmanabha Reddy.
"Water board is unable to replace old rusting supply lines due to fund crunch, resulting in people getting contaminated water. By not paying water charges, the government is setting a wrong example," Reddy said.
"As per section 199 of GHMC Act, property tax includes tax for water, drainage, lighting etc. When a citizen pays property tax to GHMC it implies that he is also paying the water and drainage tax. But Water board separately collects water and drainage tax which amounts to double payment for providing water," he said.
Reddy said that there has been no response from the government despite the chief general manager (revenue) of water board regularly pursuing the matter of pending dues.
FGG requested the chief secretary to issue instructions to all heads of department and others to clear pending water charges to enable the board to improve services.