PANAJI
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has exposed defective/ faulty water billing system in the industrial estates resulting in loss of upto 46 per cent of water units in the last three years.
The CAG in its communication to the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has criticised the Corporation for failing to put in place policies or procedures to take care of issues like faulty meters, distribution losses, billing cycle, etc.
GIDC procures water from the public works department and supplies it to the plot allottees across all the industrial estates. The industrial units are required to specify their water requirement for manufacturing process and for office consumption use at the time of making application for plot allotment.
During the test check conducted by the Auditors at three industrial estates, it was observed that there were 20 industrial units in Sancoale, 23 industrial units in Kundaim and six in Pilerne with zero water consumption reading in 2023-24. The Auditor noted that GIDC had no standard practices of billing minimum units for zero consumption and for billing at previous average for faulty meters.
The CAG also came across incorrect billing in Sancoale industrial estates while also noted that the water tariff for pharmaceutical industries, who consume water as raw material, has not been reviewed for years.
The CAG noted PWD billed the Corporation on a monthly basis for supplying water to the industrial estates and the Corporation billed the individual units based on reading of the water meters installed at each of these units.
“An analysis revealed that the Corporation incurred a loss of 14.23 per cent to 20.72 per cent of units during the last three years due to distribution losses,” CAG said.
The highest loss in water distribution was reported at Pilerne, Kundaim and Corlim industrial estate ranging from 26 per cent to 46 per cent during the period.
The CAG has recommended GIDC to consider automating its water billing process with or without smart metering solutions as it will reduce reliance on manual processes and ensure more accurate and real-time data collection, thus minimising errors and enhancing revenue recovery.
