Rajasthan government today announced a hike in water tariff for domestic and industrial sectors from Rs 2 to Rs 5 per litre.
The hike in tariff would come into force with immediate effect, an official spokesperson said today.
After holding a day-long review meeting, the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) claimed the water tariff was raised after 17 years in the state, and announced that new hike would not affect consumers "too much" as it was marginal, the spokesman said, quoting an order.
There would be no rise in water tariff on consumers using water supplied from PHED sources up to 8000 litre per month, while customers consuming water from 8000 to 15,000 litre per month would have to pay Rs 2 per kg litre instead of existing rate of Rs 1.56 per kg litre.
Similarly customers consuming water in the range of 15,000 to 40,000 litres would be charged Rs 4 per kg litre instead of existing rate of Rs 3 per kg litre.
Over 40,000 litre consumption the customers would have to pay Rs 5 per kg litre instead of existing Rs 4 per kg litre.
This hike was proposed in view of scarcity of available water, and supply of potable water to customers, and this was still less than the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Punjab/Haryana and southern states, the PHED defended.
The commercial and industrial water tariff was also hiked as per the consumption, it said. The state government was paying Rs 20 per 1000 litre on production of potable water, and it required marginal increase.
