Software flaw cost Haryana Rs 17 crore in unbilled water charges

Auditors observed that bills for April 2018 to March 2022 period of nearly 1.6 lakh domestic consumers, where water consumption was more than 20 KL, were prepared by applying slab rates (at the rate of Rs 2.50 for first 10 KL and Rs 5 per KL for next 10 KL i.e above 10 KL & up to 20 KL) instead of applying flat rates at the rate of Rs 8/Rs 10 per KL on total water consumption.

Due to the incorrect rates, over Rs 17 crore could not be recovered by the HSVP.

HSVP said that bills were being raised incorrectly as there was no inbuilt provision in the software to raise bills as per slab rates as indicated in the notification. He added that arrears on account of incorrect application of slab rates will be raised in the upcoming bills.

HSVP added that the software has been updated to raise the bills as per slab rates with effect from April 2023.

The matter was referred to Additional Chief Secretary (town & country planning) in May 2023 for their reply/comments but the same was awaited till January this year, the report mentions.

The CAG has recommended that the state government may consider introducing a robust, automated billing system to prevent discrepancies and ensure timely recovery of dues.

Auditors also claimed that irregularities were found during examination of sewerage bills.

As per HSVP’s January 2018 notification, sewerage charges—calculated at 20 per cent of water charges—were to be included in water bills for all consumer categories. Despite this directive, HSVP failed to raise sewerage bills for over 45,000 consumers between April 2018 and March 2022.

Between April 2018 and March 2022, HSVP issued water bills amounting to Rs 75.43 crore to 45,138 consumers. However, despite the notification requiring sewerage charges to be billed at 20 per cent of the water charges, HSVP failed to include these in the bills. As a result, sewerage charges worth Rs 15.08 crore were not raised or recovered during that period.

To this, Executive Engineer-cum-Nodal Officer (HSVP Division) said that some consumers had taken water connections and occupied the houses after taking occupation certificate from the competent authority but did not take sewerage connection. Therefore, sewerage bills were not raised by HSVP.

HSVP replied that instructions had been issued on May 2023 for issuing notices for disconnecting the sewer connection of defaulting consumers and getting them regularised after recovering a penalty of Rs 20,000 per connection and outstanding bills from January 2018 to date. Notices were also issued to 27,584 defaulting consumers of HSVP. It was informed that the number of defaulting consumers who had not deposited the sewerage charges had been reduced to 34,214, of which 6,630 fell in the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation.

HSVP intimated (September 2024) that number of defaulting consumers is reduced to 23,149 and recovery from these defaulting consumers would be calculated at the time of regularisation of connections.

“The reply is not satisfactory as sewerage charges of Rs 15.08 crore (20 per cent of the raised water bills of Rs 75.43 crore) were recoverable as per notification, ibid, for the period April 2018 to March 2022. Moreover, since sewerage connection is a necessity for occupying a newly built house, it is not possible to obtain occupation certificate from the competent authority,” observed the CAG report.