Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The city’s annual water supply expenditure exceeds ₹100 crore, but the recovery of water tax remains extremely poor. Therefore, on Monday, municipal corporation administrator G Sreekanth instructed all ward officers to accompany water supply linemen while collecting dues.
The administration believes this move will improve collection since linemen are aware of both authorised and unauthorised water connections in their respective areas. So far, in the current financial year, only ₹14 crore has been collected as water tax, and it is unlikely to reach ₹25 crore by March-end.
Rising water supply costs
From the new year, the city will receive an additional 200 MLD of water. The existing water supply systems will also continue, which will further increase operational costs. A 4,000 horsepower pump will be used at Jayakwadi to lift water, and purification expenses will add to the cost.
Currently, the annual expenditure on water supply is around ₹100 crore, while collections remain much lower, resulting in a deficit of ₹70–75 crore each year.
There are over 2.5 lakh authorised water connections in the city, but many property owners avoid paying water tax. Earlier, the water tax was ₹4,050 per year, which was later reduced to ₹2,025, yet a large number of citizens still fail to pay. The backlog continues to grow every year, which has become a major concern for the municipal corporation. To address this, the administrator has directed that linemen assist in water tax collection since they have on-ground knowledge of connections and consumers.
Water supply and collection network
The city has over 150 linemen managing water distribution across 115 wards. Most of them are contractual employees, with only a few being permanent staff.
In the coming months, linemen will also have to supply water to ‘no network’ areas where new pipelines have recently been installed, further increasing their workload. Many linemen already spend the entire day managing water supply schedules, raising the question of how they will find time for tax collection.
Contractual Recovery Staff
Each zone office of the municipal corporation already has a large team of permanent and contractual staff responsible for property tax and water tax recovery. However, sources say these employees are not actively visiting property owners, resulting in poor tax collection.
The administrator’s new directive aims to tackle this issue by leveraging the linemen’s field presence to improve water tax recovery and reduce the corporation’s mounting financial deficit.