Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB) has decided to revise water tariff by 9 percent in the current month. Sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday the proposal of revising water tariff by 9 percent has been approved by the directors of KW&SB and the summary in this regard has been moved to provincial minister for local bodies, Aga Siraj Durrani, for final approval.
They said the KW&SB is presently facing difficulties to meet its running expenditures hence the decision was made to pull the board out in financial crisis. They said that board has decided not to suppress its consumers oppressively by increasing water tariff at uniform rate and added the water utility tariff for domestic consumers would be increased by 9 percent while the tariff of commercial consumers would be raised in accordance with financial strength of the sector.
To a question, the sources said the board has power to revise its water tariff, annually but the same was practiced last year after nine years however, the tariff of other utilities including electricity, salaries and gasoline were frequently increased during the said period. They said the revision of water tariff was made in accordance with budget gazette approved by Sindh cabinet, which was applicable only for commercial and residential plots and flat owners were excluded from it.