PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s water freebie announcement, starting from September 1, has pitfalls: you could be foxed out of the “free water” offering and have to pay for every drop you consume if the water meter is dysfunctional and high-volume consumers could be paying up nearly 80 per-cent higher monthly water bills.
“The benefit of free water up to 16m3 per month will be available only to consumers who have functional meters,” reads the August 30 notification issued by Principal Chief Engineer U P Parsekar.
So if your water meter is faulty and non-functional, you will receive a bill and have to pay up for water even if you may have consumed less than 16,000 litres of water that month.
Also, high-end domestic consumers whose monthly water usage crosses 40 cubic meters a month will now be shelling out nearly 80 per-cent more as the new notification issued on August 30 specifies a flat Rs 15 per cubic meter tariff instead of the staggered slab wise rates of the old tariff structure.
Prior to the August 30 notification incorporating the government’s much-hyped 16,000 litres free water offering, high-volume consumers whose monthly usage crossed the 40 cubic meters mark, had the benefit of a staggered tariff -- Rs 2.50 per unit for the first 15 units, Rs 9 per unit for the next 10 units and Rs 15 per unit for water consumed above 25 cubic meters.
Now, the new tarrif regime enforced by the August 30 notification, imposes a flat Rs 15 per unit for all water consumed if usage crosses 40 cubic meters a month, which is usually the case in ancestral homes in the countryside where Goan families live in a joint family. The new tariff regime has also hiked the per unit rate for consumers whose water usage is more than 50 cubic meters to Rs 25 per unit in place of the earlier Rs 15 per unit, potentially increasing the net monthly water charges by nearly 80 per cent.
For example, a family that consumes 51 cubic meters, will now pay a monthly water bill of Rs 1,275, (Rs 25 x 51 units) which under the old regime would have been Rs 542.50 calculated at the rate of Rs 52.50 (Rs 2.50 per unit for the first 15 units) plus Rs 90 (Rs 9 per unit for the next 10 units) and Rs 400 (Rs 15 per unit for the last 26 units). Also, the new notification does not specify the methodology for computing whether residents of apartment/flats will qualify for the government’s ‘free 16,000 litres’ offering. In cities and towns, housing societies use common connections for multiple dwellings serviced through sumps and overhead tanks.
It won’t be until early October, when it will be time to pay up the first bill, that Goa’s water consumers will experience that the taste of the government’s ‘save water to get free water’ pudding is in its eating.
On Tuesday, the Chief Minister announced that the government’s scheme for providing free water up to 16,000 litres per household per month will be put into effect Wednesday. Goa will be the first state in the country to provide free water to its people, Sawant said in an address on social media.
