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| Business |
| BWB wants automatic tariff system |
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by
Tadala Makata Kakwesa, 26 January 2007
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10:03:38
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Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has asked government to allow it to start using the automatic tariff adjustment system like the one used by the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).
BWB chief executive officer Patrick Makonyola told Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday his board’s operations have been greatly affected that during the 2005/2006 financial year it registered losses.
He said since 2001, the Board was only granted a tariff increase in January 2005 when a 30 percent tariff hike was implemented and another 15 percent in April last year.
“This has resulted in the Board’s cash flow situation deteriorating considerably and its financial position being compromised during the same period due to, among other things, rising cost of essential materials and high import costs which have escalated in the foreign exchange,” he said.
But the legislators told Makonyola that BWB has a social obligation of providing safe and potable water to all Malawians.
Mangochi East MP Alfred Mwechumu said it is difficult for government to permit the company implement the automatic system looking at its social responsibility.
“Water is life. We can choose not to have electricity but we can’t choose to have water, everyone in the country needs water therefore this system, I am afraid, might make the water to be very expensive for the poor,” said Mwechumu.
During the meeting, Makonyola also expressed concern that although water is classified as surtax exempt, the company was still being charged surtax.
BWB established in 1929 and is the largest of the five wholly government owned water boards in the country. The others are Lilongwe Water Board, Central Region Water Board, Southern Region Water Board and Northern Region Water Board. |
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