New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) In the face of a deepening financial crisis, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is planning to hire a firm to identify and plug revenue leakage across its operations, officials said on Monday.
The DJB, which supplies drinking water and manages sewage systems in the national capital, has floated a tender to bring on board a financial firm for three fiscals.
“The selected firm will be tasked with auditing the DJB’s financial processes, reviewing revenue streams, and generating quarterly reports on fund utilisation and performance,” an official said.
Currently, the DJB’s operations are managed through six sectors and 120 divisions, covering administration, bulk water supply, water and drainage construction, sewerage bulk, and maintenance.
According to officials, all divisions will be linked through a customised setup to streamline financial monitoring.
One of the most pressing issues is the high volume of non-revenue water (NRW) — the difference between the amount of water produced and the amount billed.
DJB produces approximately 900–950 million gallons per day (MGD) of drinking water, but reports indicate that 50–52 per cent of this is lost to leakage, theft, or unbilled usage.
The tender document states that the firm would develop reports on anomalies in revenue records, such as zero billing, abnormal usage patterns, or frequent write-offs. “The company has to recommend solutions to reduce losses leading to NRW.” In July, Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma said the DJB was facing a financial crisis due to water bills left unpaid by government departments, the commercial sector, and domestic customers.
The financial firm will have to “cross-verify billed amounts with collections and customer registers; Identify discrepancies in billing, delays in billing, and uncollected dues”, according to the tender.
Officials said that to ensure timely completion and no cost overruns, the firm will also highlight delays in projects, financial performance, cost overruns and fund utilisation issues.
Officials added that water tariffs have not been increased since 2018, which is affecting the financial health of DJB, as loans and interest of the board have surpassed Rs 73,000 crore. PTI SSM SSM NSD NSD
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