Govt plans new policy to recover water tariffs from all kinds of consumers

The Centre will make available extra budgetary resources for the Mission, which will be allocated along with gross budgetary support to the states

The government wants to bring about structural changes to the provisions for drinking water supply services with a “utility-based” approach, according to the operational guidelines for the Jal Jeevan Mission released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. The move will enable institutions to focus on services and recover water tariffs from all kinds of consumers.

The project cost of providing 146 million functional household tap connections is estimated to be Rs 3.60 trillion, of which the Centre’s share will be Rs 2.08 trillion. According to the government data, of the 179 million rural households in the country, 81.67 per cent are yet to have water tap connections.

States will have a definite operations and maintenance policy, especially to meet the requirements such as monthly energy cost of the piped water supply scheme, by ensuring cost recovery from user groups and thereby avoiding any unwanted burden on public exchequer, according to the guidelines.

The Centre will make available extra budgetary resources for the Mission, which will be allocated along with gross budgetary support to the states. The government will incentivise good performance of states out of the fund not utilised by other states towards the end of the financial year, the guidelines said…