BWSSB plans to impose sanitary cess on industries

In a bid to plug the revenue loss of several crores of rupees from industries and commercial establishments which do not pay sanitary charges in proportion to the sewage discharge, the BWSSB plans to introduce sanitary cess for these sectors.

Presently, the Board collects sanitary charges at 25 per cent the water bill amount. Apart from this, commercial establishments with borewells pay an amount of Rs 500 per HP of the motor fitted to borewells per month. Since the sanitary charge is calculated based on the consumption of water supplied by BWSSB, industries and commercial establishments use more borewell water than Cauvery water.

As a result, the sanitary charge paid is much less compared to the quantity of waste water discharged to the sanitary lines. Hence, there is a proposal to introduce sanitary cess by taking into account different parameters, a top the BWSSB official told Deccan Herald. The official said that the cess would be calculated at the rate of Rs 15 for every 1,000 litres. The proposal, if implemented, would fetch Rs 50 crore a month to the Board.

“At present, the Board either uses the revenue collected from water bills or takes loans for works related to maintenance and repair of sanitary lines,” he said.
Presently, the BWSSB earns a monthly revenue of Rs 88 crore as water charges, service charges, which includes sanitary charge of Rs 16.5 crore. About Rs 6.8 crore comes from borewell users.

However, the Board incurs a monthly expense of Rs 50 crore on sanitation that is for electricity, conveyance, sewage treatment and maintenance, the official said.

STPs

As of now, there are sewage treatment plants (STPs) with a capacity to treat 721 million litres per day (MLD) of water, while work on an STP with a capacity of 369 MLD is in progress.

The Board spends Rs 40 crore to treat existing 600 MLD of sewage water (for power and maintenance). Besides, the BWSSB spends Rs 50 crore per month on the maintenance and installation of sanitary lines.

The amount, which is now borne from other sources, can be sourced from the sanitary cess, a study report says.

Fixing the cess

While fixing the cess for commercial establishments and industries, the BWSSB would take into account the recommendations of the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), which functions under the Ministry of Urban  Development.  The CPHEEO report states that about 80 percent of the water consumed goes waste.