73 lakhs water supply arrears in Mahendranagar, 1,442 customers including government offices have not paid their fees

Belauri (Kanchanpur): The Nepal Water Supply Corporation branch office in Mahendranagar has not been able to collect water supply fees of Rs. 73 lakhs 28 thousand 406. The arrears are increasing because government offices, non-governmental organizations, institutions, and general consumers who have been using water supply regularly have not paid their fees for years.

1,442 customers have not paid their fees at the Mahendranagar branch office of the Water Supply Corporation, which has 4,315 customers. As of mid-Asad of the last fiscal year 2082/83, the corporation has yet to collect fees from 1,422 private and 20 government offices.

Information Officer Dharmaraj Pandey said that the arrears are increasing as government offices are also delaying in paying the fees. According to him, Rs. 1,613 is yet to be paid for eight taps installed by the Mahendranagar Municipal Development Committee at various places. Similarly, Rs 116,773 from the District Sports Development Committee, Rs 108,000 from the Nutrition Office, Rs 92,000 from the Prison Branch, and Rs 99,407 from the Red Cross are yet to be collected. Similarly, Rs 57,600 from the tap installed in Unity Tole of Bhimdatta Municipality, Rs 35,540 from the Nepal Children's Organization, and Rs 42,960 from the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) UML Party Office are still outstanding.

Rs 1,354,000 in drinking water charges are yet to be collected from 20 government offices here. Similarly, Rs 5,975,000 in drinking water charges have not been collected from 1,422 private consumers.

Information Officer Pandey said that the arrears are increasing as government, non-governmental organizations, institutions, and consumers here have been refusing to pay their water charges despite repeated requests to pay.

The office has stated that the queue of those who have not paid their water charges has been cut off despite repeated requests to pay their water charges. According to Information Officer Pandey, 13 tap lines were cut by the end of the last fiscal year. The lines are being connected only after the dues are paid.

He said that some are installing new taps. Information Officer Pandey said that the government should make special arrangements for those who have not paid their dues for years.

Due to lack of identification between government offices, rising arrears
Due to the lack of identification between government offices here, consumers who do not pay their dues have been taking advantage of this. Pandey said that if the Land Administration Office and Survey Office confirmed whether the drinking water fee and electricity fee were paid or not during the purchase and sale of land, transfer of title, and payment of revenue, it would be easier to recover the drinking water fee.

He said that the ward office and municipality also did not confirm whether the old arrears were paid or not while recommending the installation of new drinking water taps, which has added to the challenge of collecting the fee from consumers who have been using drinking water for years and sold their land and houses.

Nandaraj Bhatta, Information Officer at the Land Reforms Office, Kanchanpur, says that although it is possible to check whether the land tax has been paid or not during land transactions for the convenience of the corporation, it is ignored due to the lack of legal provisions. The corporation had recovered arrears of Rs. 26,84,530 in the last fiscal year.