'100% waiver on water bill late fee in 2 months'

{ RELIEF FOR CONSUMERS } NO MORE PENALTY PAIN

- Paras Singh

Water minister Parvesh Verma on Thursday announced that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has given in-principle approval to waive 100% of the late payment surcharge (LPSC) on all pending water bills for domestic and government users in the Capital.

Announcing the decision at a press conference following a DJB board meeting a day earlier, Verma said the amnesty scheme will offer financial relief to thousands of households struggling with inflated bills. However, the waiver will not apply to commercial users.

The roll-out will take about two months, as DJB’s revenue system needs major upgrades, said the minister. “DJB’s billing software is Oracle-based and very old. If we insert the amnesty feature, it will crash. We are migrating data for 15 lakh (1.5 million) consumers to a cloud-based system. Once that's done, the waiver will be implemented,” Verma said.

LPSC is calculated daily at 18% per annum on the unpaid base amount. Verma added that the government is also considering scrapping the compound interest model and reducing surcharge rates.