PHOTO: FILE
Whether people get water from Wasa or they draw it from the ground from their own resources, the agency will collect tax on it.
Rawalpindi Development Authority RDA Chairman Arif Abbasi has said that Wasa has the legal authority to charge water bill from whoever extracts groundwater from tube well, wells, pumps of any shape or any type in the city.
He said the agency needs to end financial crisis and increase income.
“Approval to bring water bills of 80,000 houses, shops of all private housing societies of the district into the tax net has been given for the first time,” Abbasi told Daily Express. “We are bringing all of them under the tax net,” he added.
He said the agency will install flow meters on all private tube wells and charge bills according to volume of the water drawn.
He said that domestic water connections in the city are being used as commercial.
All such connections will be commercialised and charged accordingly, he said.
Water bills of large houses will be sent according to the size of the land, Abbasi said. Homes having lawns and gardens will be charged extra for using more water.
The Wasa chairman said that a grand operation will be launched to prevent water theft.
In this regard, people who have cut water mains to draw illegal pipelines will charged for water theft, Abbasi said adding these people deny others the right to water.
Factory owners extracting water through tube well will be brought under tax net as commercial entities and charged heavy commercial tariff, Wasa chairman said.
He said Wasa plans to add 100,000 people to its municipality tax net.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2018.
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