Even after extending the benefits under Abhay Yojna, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has managed to recover only seven per cent of the pending INR 2,819 crores water bills for April-December 2020. Hence, the civic body has decided to give more concessions under the scheme so that people make the payments.
The water bill arrears of INR 2,819 crores are from the last ten years. To pay this amount, the municipality had given a rebate to the arrears again since last year. However, only INR 193 crores have been recovered so far.
The corporation has prepared a proposal to give relief in stages instead of paying the arrears together, which will be presented before the standing committee soon.
In 2010-11, the BMC recovered 31 per cent of the total pending bills and in 2011-12 the recovery percentage was 21 per cent. In 2014-15, the arrears reached INR 1,119 crores. According to reports, the revenue from water and sewerage is expected to be INR 1535.88 crores in the current financial year, but the water bill could not be recovered during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Under the Abhay Yojna, the BMC waives the penalty of 2 per cent levied on water bills if consumers pay the entire amount of all the pending bills at one go. Though the corporation received a good response in the earlier years, the recovery percentage is negligible for last year.
Abhay Yojana was first implemented by Mumbai Municipal Corporation for a period of 123 days from October 1, 2010 to January 31, 2011. After that, in 2020, the scheme was implemented for a maximum of 289 days. However, only INR 673 crores of outstanding bills could be recovered under this scheme of the total INR 2,819 crores, the civic body has decided to extend the scheme.
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