BENGALURU: Ending months of speculation, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Friday said the govt will increase water tariff in Bengaluru by one paisa per litre.
The hike, being effected after 11 years, is expected to be formalised after a meeting with Bengaluru MLAs ahead of the BBMP budget. The proposed hike will be significantly lower than the 7 to 8 paise per litre hike initially sought by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the agency entrusted with the task of supplying water.
“Despite the surging costs, we have not revised the water tariff since 2014,” he said. Shivakumar pointed out that water to Bengaluru was being sourced from a place 100km away.
BWSSB incurs annual loss of ₹1k-cr, proposes hike of 8p per litre: DCM
Shivakumar, while responding to Congress MLC Ramoji Gowda’s plea in the legislative council during zero hour to provide Cauvery water at the earliest to households which have already availed Cauvery connection, said: “A few weeks ago, BWSSB officials sought to revise the tariff by 7 to 8 paise. But I told them not to go for such a huge hike as citizens may resort to protest and resolved to hike the tariff by a minimum of one paisa per litre.”
Sources in BWSSB told TOI that monthly household water charges, post the revision, are likely to go up by Rs 400 to Rs 500.As per DyCM Shivakumar’s statement, BWSSB has been incurring huge losses over the past few years.
“BWSSB has been supplying water to Bengaluru without a tariff revision since 2014. At the same time, prices of all other utility services have gone up considerably. Further, electricity tariff has also been revised every year, affecting our water-pumping activities and increasing power bills. Every year, BWSSB incurs an annual loss of about Rs 1,000 crore, and we’ve been finding ways to overcome these mounting losses. Hence, BWSSB proposed a 7 to 8 paise hike per litre,” Shivakumar said.
Acknowledging the tepid response from apartment communities to avail Cauvery water connection from BWSSB, he said, “Several builders have built huge apartments in 110 villages that are part of Bengaluru, and none paid deposit charges to BWSSB despite collecting the same from homebuyers. A few have availed water connections illegally. I’ve instructed BWSSB to serve those builders notices and recover the dues, besides linking all of them with Cauvery water connection.”