Mumbai: To recover the rising expenditure, the BMC plans to raise water tax for the financial year 2025-26. The move comes a year after the civic body's unsuccessful bid to hike charges. It had planned the rise for 2023-24 fiscal as well, however, the proposal was withdrawn after then-Chief Minister Eknath Shinde order.
This time, civic chief Bhushan Gagrani has sent the proposal for legal opinion before making a final decision. Currently, the BMC charges Rs6 per 1,000 litres of water for residential usage and Rs 50 per 1,000 litres for commercial and industrial usage.
According to a policy approved 12 years ago, the BMC is allowed to increase water tax by 8% on an annual basis. In 2012, the civic standing committee passed a resolution to limit yearly hikes to no more than 8%. While the expenditure cost of the water department has increased by 15%, there has been no hike in water tax for the past two years. As a result, the water department submitted a proposal to Gagrani, seeking to increase the tax.
“The proposal has been prepared by aggregating various costs, including administrative expenses, the royalty paid to the state government for supply from the Bhatsa dam, purification processes and infrastructure costs related to power required to draw water,” said a civic official.
The civic officials are concerned that the proposal may be put on hold due to the upcoming BMC elections. Gagrani said, “The proposal has been sent to the legal department, seeking its opinion. We have no plans to increase the water charges immediately.”
In 2022-2023, the BMC administration had increased water charges by 7.12%. Similarly in 2021, there was an increase of 5.29%. The BMC supplies 3,950 MLD of water on a daily basis.
