Jisha Surya
January 7, 2014
Thiruvananthapuram: It is not certain if it is the Arvind Kejriwal effect or the upcoming Lok Sabha polls that has prompted the state government to shelve a proposal from Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for tariff hike.
The additional chief secretary (water resources department) has informed KWA that the proposal to revise the tariff has been deferred.
The KWA board had, in July, decided to discuss the proposal. However, it had to drop the plan following the intervention of water resources minister P J Joseph. Later, in October, KWA submitted the proposal with the support of the minister. However, now the state government has made a volte-face and deferred the proposal.
Though Joseph confirmed that the proposal has been deferred, he refused to divulge the reason.
“The proposal has been postponed for the time being. Nothing has been finalized regarding the sanctioning of further fund for the public utility,” he said.
When asked whether the policies of the AAP government in Delhi had anything to do with the decision, the minister said the decision was taken much before the Delhi polls.
Meanwhile, KWA managing director Ashok Kumar Singh said that the financial condition of KWA was better than that of KSRTC and KSEB.
“No project has been affected so far. We are paying salaries on time. However, we cannot continue like this for long. The government must either increase the tariff or allocate fund,” he said.
KWA earns Rs 23.50 crore as water tariff every month, while the expenses to run its office is Rs 37 crore. It has to earmark additional Rs 20 crore per month for paying electricity charges. Currently, KWA is not in a position even to pay its monthly electricity charges.
KWA had proposed 100% tariff hike. As per the proposal, a domestic consumer whose consumption level is between 0-5 kilo litre, who currently pays Rs 4 per kilolitre, will have to pay Rs 8 per kilo litre. The minimum charge for non-domestic category will be Rs 500 per month. KWA had last revised the tariff in 2008, which was after a gap of 10 years.
January 7, 2014
Thiruvananthapuram: It is not certain if it is the Arvind Kejriwal effect or the upcoming Lok Sabha polls that has prompted the state government to shelve a proposal from Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for tariff hike.
The additional chief secretary (water resources department) has informed KWA that the proposal to revise the tariff has been deferred.
The KWA board had, in July, decided to discuss the proposal. However, it had to drop the plan following the intervention of water resources minister P J Joseph. Later, in October, KWA submitted the proposal with the support of the minister. However, now the state government has made a volte-face and deferred the proposal.
Though Joseph confirmed that the proposal has been deferred, he refused to divulge the reason.
“The proposal has been postponed for the time being. Nothing has been finalized regarding the sanctioning of further fund for the public utility,” he said.
When asked whether the policies of the AAP government in Delhi had anything to do with the decision, the minister said the decision was taken much before the Delhi polls.
Meanwhile, KWA managing director Ashok Kumar Singh said that the financial condition of KWA was better than that of KSRTC and KSEB.
“No project has been affected so far. We are paying salaries on time. However, we cannot continue like this for long. The government must either increase the tariff or allocate fund,” he said.
KWA earns Rs 23.50 crore as water tariff every month, while the expenses to run its office is Rs 37 crore. It has to earmark additional Rs 20 crore per month for paying electricity charges. Currently, KWA is not in a position even to pay its monthly electricity charges.
KWA had proposed 100% tariff hike. As per the proposal, a domestic consumer whose consumption level is between 0-5 kilo litre, who currently pays Rs 4 per kilolitre, will have to pay Rs 8 per kilo litre. The minimum charge for non-domestic category will be Rs 500 per month. KWA had last revised the tariff in 2008, which was after a gap of 10 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment