Delhi govt to waive 100% late fee on water bills — how you can benefit

Late Payment Surcharge (LPSC) is a compounding fee imposed on consumers who do not pay their bills on time. According to official data, consumers across all categories owe Rs 87,589 crore to the Delhi Jal Board, of which the principal amount is only Rs 7,125 crore and Rs 80,464 (91%) is LPSC. Specifically, domestic consumers owe Rs 16,068 crore, of which Rs 11,069 crore is LPSC.

Addressing mediapersons, Singh said “whatever the LPSC is, it will all be waived”. “This will be the first and final LPSC waiver scheme of this government. The waiver scheme is only for two categories —domestic and government. DJB will also provide relief to the commercial category but not 100%, it may be 70%… a decision on this will soon be taken.”

Singh said the LPSC waiver scheme will be implemented in two parts. “First, we will give the consumers time till January 31 to pay the principal amount… if they do it by this period, they will get a complete 100% waiver… After this, the scheme will be given a two-month extension but those who pay during this period will get only a 70% waiver on the LPSC amount,” he said.

The minister said the DJB will set up camps in colonies across the city where officials will review all the LPSC cases.

“For the past several years, the DJB has been sinking in debt and revenue loss… On the other hand, people were facing problems, be it related to pending water bills or getting a new meter connection… There were several issues that were raised before the government… So, to address the issue, the government has decided to waive off the LPSC amount on water bills, ” said Singh, adding the government will be spreading awareness about the new changes.

A senior DJB official said consumers should produce copies of all pending bills to avail the LPSC waiver.

Meanwhile, Singh said the DJB had also decided to reduce the compounding interest on water bills from 5% per billing cycle to 2% per billing cycle.

Calling the decision a “major step”, he said: “If your water bill was Rs 100 and you did not pay, it would become Rs 178 in the next billing cycle due to the 5% interest on LPSC… Due to this, the bill kept on adding up and people stopped paying after seeing the LPSC, and they used to wait for waiver schemes… But now we have brought down the interest rate to 2%.”

Singh said the Delhi government is also planning to make water bills a mandatory proof for registration of property. “Just like when we go to the sub-registrar office, the electricity bill is sought as a mandatory document, water bills of the last three months should also be asked for,” he said.