BMC unable to recover water dues
The list shows private agencies (residential and commercial) owing the BMC Rs 1,239 crore and others owing the civic body Rs 80 crores.
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is continuously failing to recover outstanding water bills — running into crores of rupees — from its defaulters which are both bigger private and government agencies.
A hefty Rs 2,092 crore is due to the BMC from defaulters among which Mhada, Western Railway, Central Railway, state government, Central government, Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and MMRDA top the list.
As per the BMC hydraulic department’s compiled data of top defaulters of water charges as on January 30, 2019, MHADA tops the list with Rs 243 crore dues, followed by WR with Rs 237 crore, CR with Rs 185 crore, state government with Rs 142 crore, central government with Rs 33 crore, MbPT with Rs 11 crore, MMRDA with '7 crore, MCGM with Rs 7 crore, and BEST with around Rs 1 crore. The list shows private agencies (residential and commercial) owing the BMC Rs 1,239 crore and others owing the civic body Rs 80 crores.
“We continuously have correspondences and meetings with government agencies for paying their dues but they fail to pay. We get answers like they will include in their next budget while with some, there are disputes over charges applied on water supplied. In spite of owing crores of rupees for water supply, we cannot disconnect the water supply to them. Those are state and central government offices and if water is not provided, Mumbaikars will only suffer,” said a senior officer from the hydraulic department.
The defaulters however have refused having excess dues. “We pay the water bills regularly and only the sanitation charges are not paid as they are not applicable to a government body. We had a meeting recently with the BMC on this,” said WR spokesperson R. Bhakar.
CR spokesperson A.K. Jain, too, said, “Water charges are paid regularly. If there are any outstanding bills sent by the BMC, we will check.”
Mhada’s Mumbai board chief officer, Sanjay Bhagwat, said, “None of the dues are of office buildings but of residential ones. The particular societies are responsible for paying the bills”.