RAWALPINDI: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has requested the Punjab government to increase its subsidy from Rs200 million to Rs500 million or allow the agency to increase the water tariffs which remained unchanged for about 10 years.

A senior official of Wasa told Dawn that the agency’s expenditures had increased due to the rising electricity tariffs and the subsidy given by the government was consumed on the payment of the power bills.

“For the establishment expenditure, Wasa spent an amount of Rs360 million in 2014-15 and Rs358.398 million in 2013-14 compared to Rs272.903 million in 2012-13. It has to spend more money on the payment of salaries to the tubewell operators as the number of tubewells also increased from 300 to 370. As a result, the electricity bills increased from Rs200 million to Rs300 million per year.”

He said no development scheme could be launched from Wasa’s own resources and the civic agency relied on the development funds from the Punjab government. He said the water charges in the garrison city had not been increased since 2005 and the agency had no option but to seek financial assistance from the government.

The official said at least 50 per cent increase in water tariffs was necessary. During the last 10 years, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and the Chaklala Cantonment Board increased the water tariffs thrice, he added.

When contacted, Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood confirmed that the request had been sent to the government.

“We have already started work to bring all the consumers in the tax net. Besides, we also launched a crackdown against more than 8,000 defaulters who never paid the water charges since 1998. As a result of the campaign, the agency managed to collect Rs260 million in the fiscal 2014-15 compared to Rs240 million in 2013-14.”

He said the agency was reluctant to snap the water connections of the illegal holders and those who failed to pay the bills regularly. “Instead of snapping the water connections, we introduced incentives for the people to pay their outstanding bills in installments,” he said.

The official said Iesco charged commercial rates from Wasa for its electricity connections due to which the power bills continued to rise.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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