Panaji: The state government has introduced Dues recovery and settlement scheme 2020-21, which is a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for the defaulting water consumers of the public works department (PWD).
A notification issued by the PWD on December 23 states that the scheme is intended for recovery of dues from all domestic and non-domestic water consumers, who are having accumulated dues as on October 31, 2020. The scheme will help the government in speedy recovery of the dues.
“This is a one-time settlement scheme for the defaulted consumers who have not paid their dues to the public works department for utilisation of the services of providing potable water and sewerage services either for domestic or non-domestic purpose including bulk consumers till October 31, 2020,” a notification said.
According to the notification, the scheme shall also be made applicable to the defaulting consumers whose cases have been referred to the revenue recovery court (RRC) as on October 31, 2020, and also consumers whose installations have been temporarily or permanently disconnected as on October 31, 2020 for non-payment of the arrears.
The scheme will also be applicable to the consumers currently availing water supply from the department, that is active consumers with accumulated arrears up to October 31, 2020.
The validity of the scheme is one month from the date of notification on the official gazette of the government of Goa.
Under the scheme, consumers can avail one of the five options of repayment of dues based on tenure of repayment selected by the consumer.
For consumers availing the option to pay the dues in two monthly equated instalments, no delay payment charges (DPC) shall be charged, which means DPC will be waived off totally. For consumers availing the option to pay the dues in three monthly equated instalments, 80 per cent of the DPC shall be waived off.
For consumers availing the option to pay the dues in four monthly equated instalments, 60 per cent of the DPC shall be waived off, while for consumers availing the option to pay the dues in five monthly equated instalments, 40 per cent of the DPC shall be waived off. For consumers availing the option to pay the dues in six monthly equated instalments, 20 per cent of the DPC shall be waived off.
As per the scheme, the consumers shall pay the first instalment within seven days of the date of registration and the subsequent instalments shall be paid in the subsequent months as per the schedule.
For consumers whose cases have been referred to RRC for recovery of outstanding dues and details of water and sewerage charges and DPC are not available and are opting for the OTS scheme, 50 per cent of the outstanding dues shall be waived, states the notification.
