Water subsidy withdrawn: Dehydrating the poor?

Subsidy offered to low ranking government officials on water tax has been withdrawn.

ISLAMABAD:

Low ranking government officials in the capital are in for a rough ride — the subsidy offered to them on water tax has been withdrawn.

They were previously exempted from water tax. Now the civic agency has decided to withdraw this exemption in what some analysts believe to be an attempt to increase revenues and relieve its financial burden.

Concession in water charges for Class-IV employees has been withdrawn from January 1 and they have been asked to deposit water charges. Government institutions have been asked to ensure deduction of water charges from the salaries of their employees.

Ramzan Sajid, spokesperson of CDA, told The Express Tribune that about 3,500 employees will be affected from the decision to withdraw the water tax subsidy.

The civic body will generate about Rs2.1 million per annum from the move, he added.

Responding to a question, he said the motivation behind the decision was mainly to get the employees to use less water. “We wanted to conserve water more than generate funds,” he explained, referring to the funds generated through this move as “token money”.

Chaudhry Yasin, General Secretary Collective Bargaining Agent union of CDA, said that they will not allow low-ranked employees to be burdened any more.

He said, “There is a precedent worldwide that those who provide services to others (such as water distributing, cleaning etcetera) are exempted from such taxes. How can CDA bring low-ranked employees under the tax net?”

He added CDA had been discriminating against them since a long time. About 7,000 low ranked employees of the authority have not been allotted official residences and have to live in rented houses.

He said, “The funds that CDA will generate from the water tax might be token money for them, but it is a significant amount for us.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.