Visakha Industrial Water Supply Company (Viwsco), which supplies water to local industries and the Visakhapatnam Corporation, has decided to enhance the charges by more than 125 per cent.
Viwsco supplies water to bulk users like Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, NTPC’s Simhadri plant, APIIC and the Visakhapatnam Corporation. The company supplies about 55 million gallons to these bulk users daily at a rate of Rs 8.53 per litre. Now, it has decided to increase this to Rs 20 per litre.
“Viwsco already charges Rs 20 a litre from other industrial consumers, but due to an agreement with the state government, we are collecting only Rs 8.53 from these bulk users,” B Jayarami Reddy, director, Viwsco, told Business Standard.
According to the agreement, the difference should be reimbursed to Viwsco by the state government. However, the state government has not been releasing the amount, and this has now reached Rs 190 crore, Reddy said. Keeping this in view, the governing body of Viwsco has decided to collect Rs 20 per litre from all consumers, he added. This will see an increase in revenues of Viwsco by Rs 60-65 crore annually.