Baneshwar, Maharajgunj offices have the highest unrecovered dues
KATHMANDU, Jan 12: Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited has outstanding dues worth Rs 2.12 billion to collect from its monthly billed customers.
The amount is thrice the size of its annual revenue collection. KUKL mobilized total revenue of Rs 656 million in the Fiscal Year 2014/15.
Of the 10 KUKL offices, Baneshwar office has the highest outstanding dues to collect, according to KUKL offices. The office has unrecovered dues of around Rs 403 million.
Maharajgunj is second in the list with outstanding dues of Rs 389 million, or 18.36 percent of total outstanding dues, KUKL statistics shows.
Mahesh Bhattarai, general manager of KUKL, said that some dues date back to the Panchayat era.
Unrecovered water tariff worth Rs 685 million was transferred to KUKL from Nepal Water Supply Corporation when the entity was formed under public private partnership model in 2008. The unrecovered dues have ballooned to Rs 1.43 billion in eight years.
Satish Kumar Datta, deputy manager at KUKL's Baneshwar branch, said that many consumers may have shown reluctant to foot their monthly bill as they hardly get drinking water from their taps. “We don't have our own sources; we have to depend on other sources to supply water to consumers,” he added.
Om Dhakal, a KUKL employee, said even well-to-do customers of Baneshwar and Maharajgunj areas have not paid their water bill.
In recent days, however, some customers have been settling their outstanding dues with the hope of getting water supply once Melamchi water reached Kathmandu by next year, according to Bhattarai.
KUKL has managed to recover Rs 50 million from such customers in the first five months of the current fiscal year. In the same period last year, it had managed to recover outstanding dues of only Rs 20 million.
KUKL has Rs 2.12 billion water tariff dues
