Delhi's water bill surcharge waiver scheme extended till August 15: Minister Parvesh Verma

The Delhi government has extended the deadline for its water bill surcharge waiver scheme to August 15, Minister Parvesh Verma said on Friday, while noting that more than three lakh people have availed the benefits of the scheme till now.

The Delhi government has extended the deadline for its water bill surcharge waiver scheme to August 15, Minister Parvesh Verma said on Friday, while noting that more than three lakh people have availed the benefits of the scheme till now. According to him, more than 16 lakh customers in the domestic category have pending water bills. Since the scheme's rollout, consumers have already availed rebates worth Rs 1493 crore, and Rs 430 crore has been successfully collected by the DJB in revenue, the Delhi water minister said. ''We expect recoveries to rise significantly after the next billing cycle, once consumers receive updated bills reflecting the waived surcharges,'' Verma said further. Noting that 3,30,000 customers have availed the benefits of the late payment surcharge waiver scheme on water bills, he said the government aims to recover Rs 5,000 crore in pending dues of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), waiving late payment surcharge to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore. On October 14, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced a complete waiver of late payment surcharges of water bills for domestic consumers till January 31. About extending the deadline, Verma said, ''We were getting a lot of requests from public representatives and resident welfare associations to extend the deadline of the scheme. Also, there are several problems in DJB's billing system, due to which people who want to avail themselves of the scheme cannot do so. Now we were trying to fix the problems.'' The government is also planning to start water Lok Adalats, where billing related issues can be sorted out on the spot, he added. Under the new scheme, consumers are required to pay only the principal amount, while the entire surcharge is being waived off as a one-time relief measure.

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