Wasa charges may go up from 18pc to 270pc for domestic consumers

LAHORE: The Punjab government has proposed increasing water and sanitation charges of all five water and sanitation authorities of the province from 18 per cent to 270 per cent for the domestic consumers during the next three years.

Further, the tariff for commercial, industrial and aquifers will increase exorbitantly to make Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi self-sustainable.

The formal approval in this regard would be given by the cabinet as the Resource Mobilization Committee (RMC) after approving the Business Plan of increasing the indigenous revenue generation of the WASA has forwarded it to the cabinet for final nod.

Secretary Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Nadeem Mahboob said: “There is no approval for increased WASA tariff rate. The business plan of WASA, which includes rationalization of tariff, was presented to the Resource Mobilization Committee for review. The approval forum is the cabinet.”

However, the officials who attended the meeting said the RMC gave its nod to the Business Plan rather the Chair of the meeting Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht – who asked clubbing the revenue collection on solid waste management with WASA to control the sewerage issues and improve sewerage services efficiencies.

They said it was continuation of decisions made in an earlier RMC meeting held in May this year in which it was instructed to prepare the business plan for the WASA focusing on increasing the Own Source Revenue (OSR) and improving the collection efficiencies of all the five WASA authorities in the province.

According to the Business Plan, the current tariff of the WASA Lahore for domestic consumers of a three-Marla house is Rs 286 which is proposed to increase to Rs 337, 3.1 to 5 Marlas is Rs 375 which will increase to Rs 446 and 5.1 to 7 Marlas is 464 which will increase to Rs 557 for one year. For the next three years, it will increase to Rs 558, 770 and 952 respectively.

For the WASA Rawalpindi, the proposed plan for one year is Rs 206, 336 and Rs 462 from the current tariff of Rs 147 for up to 5 Marlas, Rs 240 to 5-7 Marlas and Rs 330 for 7-10 Marlas. Further, in the next three years, it was proposed to increase to Rs 543, 887 and 1,296, respectively.

For the WASA Multan, the current tariff of up to 3 Marlas is Rs 57 which will increase to Rs 71, 3-5 Marlas is 94 which will increase to Rs 118 and 5-10 Marlas is Rs 156 which will increase to Rs 211 in one year. In the next three years, it is proposed to increase to Rs 165, Rs 289 and Rs 544, respectively.

For the WASA Gujranwala, the proposed plan is to increase the domestic tariff from Rs 130 to 164 for up to three Marlas, Rs 140 to 179 for 3-5 Marlas and Rs 175 to Rs 228 for 5-7 Marlas in one year. In the next three years, it is proposed to increase to Rs 388, Rs 435 and Rs 585, respectively.

For the WASA Faisalabad, the current tariff of up to 2.5 Marlas is Rs 138 which will increase to Rs 186, 2.5-3.5 Marlas is Rs 207 which will increase to Rs 279 and 3.5-5 Marlas is Rs 242 which will increase to Rs 327 in one year. For the next three years, it will increase to Rs 433, Rs 650 and Rs 810 respectively.

It is pointed out that in the current situation, if the tariff is not increased, Rs 18.5 billion subsidy will be required for all the five WASAs by 2023.

However, if the proposed tariff increase is made, the WASAs would be able to generate Rs 7.4 billion as their own source revenue while by the 4th year, no subsidy will be required for them.

Further, according to the business plan, the commercial connection tariff will increase from 15 per cent to 60 per cent in the first year while 55 to 210 per cent by 2023-24. According to the plan, the highest tariff increase is recommended for commercial connection of the WASA Faisalabad to 210 per cent by 2023-24, starting from 60 per cent increase in 2020-21, 55 per cent in 2021-22, 50 per cent in 2020-23 and 45 per cent in 2023-24.

The lowest increase in the commercial tariff is proposed for the WASA Lahore to 55 per cent by 2023-24, starting from 15 per cent increase in each year from 2020 to 2023 and 10 per cent in 2023-24.

The proposed increase for commercial connections of the WASA Multan is 160 per cent by 2023-24, starting with 45 per cent increase in 2020 to 2023 and 25 per cent 2023-24.

Further, the WASA Gujranwala commercial tariff increase is proposed 145 per cent by 2023-24 starting from 40 per cent increase in each year from 2020 to 2023 and 25 per cent increase in 2023-24. The WASA Rawalpindi proposed increase in commercial user tariff as 160 per cent by 2023-24 starting with increase of 40 per cent in each year from 2020 to 2024.

Similarly, the WASA Lahore, Multan and Gujranwala proposed same tariff increase for the industrial users from 2021 to 2024 as it recommended for commercial users, except WASA Faisalabad which reduced the ratio of increasing the tariff for industrial user by 50 per cent less than the commercial user by suggesting increasing it to 160 per cent by 2024 starting with 40 per cent increase each year from 2020-21.

Further, the WASA Lahore suggested zero increase in aquifer tariff and maintained it on the current rates.

However, the WASA Rawalpindi proposed the highest increase in aquifer tariff by increasing it to 260 per cent by 2023-24, starting from 80 per cent in 2020-21, 70 per cent in 2021-22, 60 per cent in 2022-23 and 50 per cent in 2023-24.

The WASA Multan and Faisalabad have proposed increase in aquifer tariff up to 160 per cent by 2023-24 while the WASA Gujranwala proposed up to 145 per cent increase by 2023-24.

An official of the Finance Department said the RMC instructed removing all illegal water connections. Further, the Punjab government will request the federal government for assigning a special tariff for the WASAs to reduce the electricity burden. This will not only reduce the financial burden of WASAs but also help reduce water and sanitation charges for lower income group.

Further, the proposed business plan will regulate the water supply and sanitation in the private schemes, alongside controlling the water leakages, illegal connections and ending of without meter water supply, the official added.