PANAJI
With many flats closed and owners having failed to pay sewage connection fees, the PWD has now decided to recover the amount adding Rs 150 per month to the water bill till the amount of Rs 3,000 is recovered.
The government’s earlier notification in April 2021 had stipulated that a dwelling unit or the housing society had to compulsory pay a one-time sewage connection fee of Rs 3,000 per connection under subsidised sewerage connection scheme.
However even after completion of a year, many dwelling units have not paid the cost to the government. To ensure payment of sewage connection fees, the PWD has issued a fresh notification in this regard.
"It is brought to the notice of the government that some societies/building owners are not availing sewerage connections to the buildings, as some owners of flats are not available to pay the connection fees/some of the owners are not willing to pay the fees and as such, the buildings/societies are unable to avail the sewerage connection under the scheme due to non-payment of sewerage connection fees,” states the notification issued by PWD Principal Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar.
"Now, the Government shall recover the sewerage connection fees as notified under the scheme from consumers who are not willing to pay/owners of the vacant flats as follows from the monthly water bills.”
As per notification where individual water connections exist to each flat, the sewerage connection fees will be recovered from the monthly water bills of the consumer at the rate of Rs 150 in each bill issued during the billing cycle till the entire amount of Rs 3000 is recovered.
In case a common connection to a building/society and part of the building owners are willing to pay the sewerage connection fees, the connection will be provided to the building by accepting the amount paid by the building owners/society and the balance be
recovered from the monthly water bills of the common building/society water connections at the rate of Rs 150/flat in each bill issued during the billing cycle till the entire amount of Rs 3000 per flat is recovered from the balance amount payable against the flats for which payment is not made.
The Government has also provided an option for “existing domestic consumers (houses, bungalows, apartments etc.), where sewerage connection fees will be recovered from the monthly water bills of the consumer at the rate of Rs 150 in each bill issued during the billing cycle, till the entire amount of sewerage connection fees as notified under rules is recovered.
