HMWS&SB to charge consumers not availing free drinking water scheme

From January 1, 2022, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), will be issuing water bills to consumers who have not availed of the free drinking water scheme.

The HMW&SB has informed the consumers that those who register before December 31, 2021 will be issued zero bills for 20,000 litres per month with effect from December 2020 and those who fail to enrol before December 2021, will be levied water charges as per rates from December 2020. However, interest or penalties will not be levied and consumers can pay the bills in four installments.

To facilitate consumers, the board stopped billing from Dec 2020 to August 2021 and extended the enrollment to



December 2021. As per the board’s records, out of the 9,84,023 Consumer Account Numbers (CANs), 4,90,186 have enrolled themselves and the remaining are likely to be enrolled by the month. The expected enrollments in December 2021 is 60,000, said HMWS&SB in a press release.

As per the scheme, all domestic consumers are eligible for a rebate of up to 20,000 litres per house in their monthly water bills, provided they fulfill the conditionality given by the State government. Domestic slum consumers can enrol for the scheme by linking their Aadhaar numbers with CAN numbers and they are exempt from having a water meter. For other domestic consumers, they are required to link their Aadhaar and have working meters.