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City of Joy in troubled waters over water tax
Published on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 23:38, Updated on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 00:19 in 
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TAXING TIMES: The Kolkata Mayor is determined to go ahead with plans to impose domestic water tax.
Kolkata: Should residents be charged for the cost price of piped water, which is usually higher than what people actually pay? Mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, says one should.
“Every city pays water tax,” Bhattacharya reasoned.
The Kolkata Mayor is determined to go ahead with plans to impose domestic water tax in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) areas and his reasons are:
- The KMC bears a cost of Rs 153 crore per month to produce 291 million gallons of filtered water.
- Out of this they recover only Rs 27 crore through revenue.
- Of the 291 million gallons produced, 35 per cent is wasted.
And the tax is to check this wastage. Not just that, the Mayor also announced that houses with ferule of a diametre between 10 and 15 mm will not have to pay taxes. On an average, homes in Kolkata have a ferule diametre of 20mm.
The ferule determines the flow of water into the houses. Not just that people will also have to shell out Rs 7,000 to install the water metre. And with a proposal to abolish tube wells by 2010, residents of Kolkata are seething with anger.
“Water is essential to us but I am not ready to pay tax for it,” a homemaker, Ambalika Sen said.
The issue has also given the opposition in the KMC enough ammunition.
“When we were ruling we didn't take any water tax. Still we had Rs 350 crore as excess with the exchequer,” TMC councilor Arp Chatterjee said.
Kolkata has very few houses with ferule below 15mm and with new multi-storied buildings coming up, there will be very few left who will not have to pay tax.
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