Water Tax Imposed On The Sly

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee has been clamouring against water tax since the time Subrata Mukherjee was the mayor, in 2000. It was also on the Trinamool Congress election manifesto. But the fact is that Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been secretly collecting water tax from highrises and housing complexes since 2007.
It started quietly with the Left Front board, under mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, and the current Trinamool-led board is steadily extending its scope, say sources.All the while the party has claimed that it is against taxing people for water.
At the heart of this politically tough decision is revenue. Donor agencies, like the Asian Development Bank and UK’s Department for International Development, have made it clear to Kolkata Municipal Corporation that it has to impose water tax to be eligible for financial aid for development projects.
So, while political parties keep up the pretence that they are not taxing the “common man” for water, they quietly charge residents of upmarket housing societies and show the revenue as proof that they are moving towards a water tax regime. From `3.5 crore a year, the annual revenue from water tax has touched `6 crore. The projection for end-2012 is a whopping `30 crore, say sources.
Highrises and government housing apartments still form the base of the water tax net but it will inevitably be cast wide. KMC has decided to bring all upcoming highrises or government housing complexes under mandatory water tax scheme in the next couple of years, say sources. “We will install water meters in all these residential apartments and charge a fee from the flat owners. This will augment our revenue,” said a KMC water supply department official.
Tivoli Court on Ballygunge Circular Road and City High on Anwar Shah Road are some of the apartments where flat owners have been paying water tax for four years, while political leaders — including Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee — have been arguing against it.
On Friday, TOI visited some prominent highrises that have been contributing significantly to the water tax revenue. Some 180 flat owners in the City High complex pay `5.5 lakh annually as water tax to KMC. This works out to roughly `3,000 per house owner per year, or `250 a month. The bill is generated every three months.
The process is that KMC water supply inspectors take readings from the water meters installed in the building and divide the total amount among the flat owners. KMC charges `7 per 1,000 litres of water for domestic use and `12 per 1,000 litres for industrial and commercial use.
Tapan Bose, the caretaker of City High, said that they regularly collect the water tax from flat owners and pay the bills to the civic body.
Tivoli Court, which has some 130 flat owners, pays `2.5 lakh as water tax to the KMC every year, said A K Mukherjee, a member of the residents’ association. A water meter was installed in Tivoli Court when the flat owners demanded potable water from the civic body. “We have been paying water tax for four years. Other highrises should also be charged for water,” Mukherjee said.
Sources say that 93% of flat owners living in housing complexes under the tax net have been paying their bills regularly. This was not so even three years ago. “We had only 125 water meters installed in the industrial, institutional and commercial establishments in 2008. Now, we have 245 connections registered as commercial and residential connections. Our revenue generation has increased significantly,” said a KMC official. Some of the well known connections include Writers’ Buildings, the Doordarshan Centre at Golf Green, government hospitals and academic institutions.