Mumbai: Congress, SP Demands Withdrawal Of Water Tax Hike, Threatens To Protest

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now decided to increase charges on water. The Congress and Samajwadi Party are strongly opposing this decision of BMC. On the issue, the opposition parties wrote a letter to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and demanded to withdraw the proposal or they will protest on the streets of mumbai.

The new proposal recently got a green signal from the BMC administrator, and the new water charges will be implemented from December 1. Mumbai Congress President Varsha Gaikwad said that citizens are already facing inflation, and a hike in water charges is an injustice to them. She said, “We would take this battle with the BMC to the streets if the administrator did not reverse his decision to raise water rates.”

Former Opposition Leader in the BMC and Senior Congress Leader, Ravi Raja said that because there are no corporators, such decisions are directly being taken by the BMC administrator. The administrator is not considering the public view. Some areas in the city still have contaminated and scarce water. First and foremost, the BMC needs to make sure everyone has access to enough water.

Raees Sheikh, MLA of the Samajwadi Party, also wrote a letter to the civic chief, saying that on the one hand, the BMC is spending INR 1700 crore on the beautification project, and now they are trying to earn revenue by increasing water charges, which is an injustice to the citizens.

Tax Rates rise by 8% Every Year

The administration was granted permission by the BMC Standing Committee in 2012 to raise the water levy at a maximum annual rate of 8%. As a result, the administration raises the water tax effective June 16 of each year. However, taxes were left unchanged in 2020–21 and 2021–22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Every day, 3900 million liters of water are delivered to the city by the BMC.

Every year, a huge amount of money is spent by the civic body on the maintenance of dams, water supply lines, water purification processes, and security of the dams. Different entities are subject to different rates from BMC. For example, domestic users are charged a nominal fee, while industrial users and water-selling companies are charged comparatively more.

Water rates increased by 7.12% in the last year and by 5.29% in 2021. For residential use, the current fees are INR 6 per 1000 liters of water, and for commercial and industrial use, they are INR 50. The proposed increase is not directly related to the 'Water For All' policy, which aims to supply regular water to unmapped slum clusters; rather, it will apply to all sectors.

Officials stated that the higher fees would apply to all industries and would not be directly related to this policy.

Reason for the hike

A proposal from the hydraulic department states that they must spend a significant amount of money on administrative costs. The state government must be paid royalties in order to obtain water from the Bhatsa dam, maintain the machinery, repair the dam walls, and pay electricity bills.