Team Herald
PANJIM: Public Works Department (PWD) has revised the water tariff that is being implemented from September 1, following the recent announcement made by the Chief Minister on providing free water to all individual domestic consumers.
PWD officials also revealed that presently, Goa has 3.18 lakhs water supply connections and that majority of the connections, i.e. around 60% are Domestic Water Supply Consumers.
The department also gave the breakup of the different types of tariffs.
It is to be noted that under the new scheme, all individual domestic consumers whose monthly consumption is less than 16 m3 (cubic metre) will receive a ‘zero water bill’.
Consumption above 16 m3 to 40 m3, it is divided into 3 slabs. The first slab, for consumption of another 0 to 15 m3, the rate is Rs 3.5/m3. For the second slab, for the next 16 m3 to 25 m3, the rate is Rs 9/m3. Similarly, the rate for the third slab, i.e. 26 m3 to 40 m3, is Rs 15/m3.
Thereafter, for consumption above 40 m3 to 50 m3, it is a flat rate of 15/m3 for all units. Similarly, for consumption above 50 m3, it is a flat rate of Rs 25/m3 for all units.
Consumers with common water connections to two or more houses/ buildings/complexes, the benefit to lower water tariff and the subsequent billing will be based on the number of flats/houses.
PWD officials gave an example to explain this scenario.
The example is of one residential complex that has 50 flats and is provided with 1 water supply connection in the complex with a total monthly consumption of 1,250 m3.
“Billing as per proposed tariff has to be flat rate i.e 1,250 multiplied by 25, which equals to Rs 1, 250. But the government has decided to give benefit to all such complexes,” said the PWD officials.
They further explained that consumption in cubic metres per number of flats is 1,250 divided by 50 which equals to 25 cubic metres.
Hence, the water supply bill will be as mentioned below.
For consumption of 0 to 15 m3, it will be Rs 3.5 multiplied by 15 which totals up to Rs 52.5. For consumption of Rs 16 m3 to 25 m3, the rate will be Rs 9 multiplied by 10, which totals up to Rs 90. All of this combined amounts to Rs 142.50 per flat.
Considering 50 flats, the water supply bill will be Rs 7, 125.
“Based on the above formula, based on the total consumption per number of flats of houses, they will be billed and the water supply bill will be easily affordable to all,” the officials added.
The department has also given two options to consumers regarding use of meters.
For the first option, the government has decided to implement free meter rent to all domestic consumers if they wish to install their own water meter which will be tested and verified by the department before installation.
In the second option, the water meter installed by the department will be charged meter rent up to the recovery of cost of meter and then once the cost is recovered, no meter rent will be charged.
The department gave information regarding the revised tariff for the category of ‘small hotels & restaurants, hostels having rooms less than 15 or government tourist hostels (non air-conditioned) having area up to 150 m3.
“The minimum water bill was earlier RS 500 per month, which has been reduced to only Rs 250per month by giving a 50% waiver to such units,” said PWD officials.
“We are sure, the people of Goa will support the government to achieve the judicious use of water concept and limit their monthly consumption to avail the benefits. The above scheme will be applicable for all functional water meters,” the officials concluded.
