Govt comes up with OTS scheme for water bills

Patiala, February 18

The Department of Local Government has notified a one-time settlement scheme (OTS) for payment of water and sewerage arrears on a pattern of the property tax settlement scheme.

The government has provided a partial relief to residents in order to collect over-due tax amount and decided to waive interest on pending amount for three months and penalty for the next six months.

The government in its notification released last week waived interest and penalty on the pending amount if paid by May 12.

The users have to deposit the interest amount after the given period, but will still be able to avail rebate on penalty charged on the pending amount till six months.

The government has also decided to disconnect connections after six months.

In Patiala, no interest is collected on pending water and sewerage tax amounts while 25 per cent penalty is collected for the current year’s water bill only.

Officials of the Municipal Corporation said the civic body body has collected nearly Rs 9.60 crore tax in the current fiscal till December 2019, of which Rs 1.25 crore was pending arrears. The local body has been falling short of collecting the yearly budget target of Rs 15 crore and managed to collect Rs 12.50 crore last year.

Patiala MC Commissioner Poonamdeep Kaur said the people should take benefit of the scheme and pay the outstanding amount. — TNS