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Waiver on water bills likely to deepen Ludhiana MC’s financial crisis
The Punjab government’s attempt to woo voters ahead of 2022 assembly elections by waiving pending water bills is expected to further deepen the financial crisis of the fund-starved municipal corporation (MC)
The Punjab government’s attempt to woo voters ahead of 2022 assembly elections by waiving pending water bills is expected to further deepen the financial crisis of the fund-starved municipal corporation (MC). The civic body is yet to receive around ₹250 crore as outstanding water-sewer charges.
While officials are tight-lipped over the announcement, they fear that the authorities might even struggle to pay salaries and take up routine work if the government continues to announce waivers. Penalty and interest waiver for property tax and water-sewer charges had already been announced earlier.
The officials added that the outstanding amount might be more than ₹250 crore, as many cases pertaining to water-sewer tariff are under dispute.
As per the announcement made by chief minister Charanjit Channi, water tariff for domestic consumers has also been reduced to ₹50 per month from upto ₹300 per month for different categories. This will further reduce the MC’s revenue.
An MC official, requesting anonymity, said the government is announcing freebies to woo voters, but the crisis at the ground level is deepening. Senior officials have been pushing the authorities to expedite recovery of dues so that salaries can be paid on time and development projects can be taken up, but the government has waived off the dues in one go.
Citing the norms set by World Bank to seek loan for the 24x7 water supply project, the MC had recently hiked the tariff by upto 60% for different categories. But now, the authorities have announced a waiver just for political gain, said the official, while adding that this will also encourage wastage and careless behaviour among residents.
Municipal commissioner, Pardeep Sabharwal said that the decision has been taken at state level and the government must have considered all aspects. He added that the government has not yet issued a notification, so there can be no comments on the matter yet.
Confusion over waiver on sewer charges
As the civic body has been issuing combined bills for water-sewer charges in the city, there is also confusion over whether the sewer charges will also be waived off or not. The MC officials stated that the situation will be clear only after the state government issues notification.
The MC officials stated that this is also an injustice towards those paying taxes on time, as no benefit has been extended to them. Earlier too, the government had announced penalty and interest waiver for property tax and water-sewer user charges defaulters, but no incentive was announced for good taxpayers.
