Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials are planning to increase water tariff by 30-35%, with the aim to make up for the expenses incurred for projects in the city.
A senior BWSSB official said, “The Karnataka government has approved periodical increase of electricity tariff. But water tariff remains the same. In October 2017, we had submitted a proposal for increasing the water tariff once in three years. However, the government had recommended that water tariff can be increased once in five years. The last time the tariff was increased was in 2014 and hence we are planning to increase the rates this year.”
“We need to pump water from the Thorekadanahalli dam. For this we have to pay the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation and Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation. The monthly cost itself is around Rs 33 crore. We are generating a revenue of around Rs 100 crore per month. A huge chunk of it is going on paying electricity bills to two agencies and hence we need to increase tariff. We also have to recover costs incurred for several projects in Bengaluru,” the official added.
BWSSB will have to hold public consultation before a proposal is sent to the government. The Karnataka government had rejected the initial proposal made by the BWSSB, in October 2017 and had recommended the agency to hold public consultation.
