Water-Tax Recovery Statement Before the Commissioner's Review
You are preparing the ward water-tax recovery statement for the municipal commissioner's monthly review. The ward has 1,200 live water connections: 45% domestic, 30% commercial and 25% institutional. The current year's demand per connection is Rs 900 for domestic, Rs 2,400 for commercial and Rs 4,500 for institutional. Collection so far is 80% of domestic demand, 65% of commercial demand and 50% of institutional demand. The commissioner's standing instruction is that no ward may report below 75% overall recovery. Your senior asks for a one-page note stating exactly where the ward stands and which category should be pursued in the remaining ten days with the two recovery staff available. Arrears brought forward from earlier years on unpaid domestic connections total Rs 1,08,000. The water-tax register is still maintained manually, and only the institutional list carries telephone numbers.
1. Compute category-wise demand, category-wise collection, total demand, total collection and the overall recovery percentage. State whether the 75% target is met, and by how much it is missed.
Read the worked answer
Connection counts: domestic = 45% of 1,200 = 540; commercial = 30% = 360; institutional = 25% = 300. Check: 540 + 360 + 300 = 1,200.
Demand
- Domestic: 540 x 900 = Rs 4,86,000
- Commercial: 360 x 2,400 = Rs 8,64,000
- Institutional: 300 x 4,500 = Rs 13,50,000
- Total demand = Rs 27,00,000
Collection
- Domestic: 80% of 4,86,000 = Rs 3,88,800
- Commercial: 65% of 8,64,000 = Rs 5,61,600
- Institutional: 50% of 13,50,000 = Rs 6,75,000
- Total collection = Rs 16,25,400
Recovery = 16,25,400 / 27,00,000 = 60.2%
The target of 75% is not met. 75% of 27,00,000 = Rs 20,25,000. Shortfall against target = 20,25,000 - 16,25,400 = Rs 3,99,600, i.e. the ward is 14.8 percentage points short and must collect roughly Rs 4 lakh in ten days. Note also that the ward is not 'broadly on track': domestic, the category with the most connections, is ahead of target, and the shortfall comes almost entirely from institutional connections.
2. How many domestic connections are unpaid, and what is the average brought-forward arrears per unpaid domestic connection? What does that average tell you before you print it?
Read the worked answer
Unpaid domestic connections: 80% collected means 20% unpaid. 20% of 540 = 108 connections.
Average arrears: 1,08,000 / 108 = Rs 1,000 per unpaid connection.
What the average conceals. An average of Rs 1,000 can be produced by 100 connections owing Rs 900 each and 8 owing Rs 3,375 each, or by a single defaulter owing Rs 60,000 with 107 small balances. Those two wards need completely different recovery action - mass notices in the first case, a focused notice and possible disconnection proceedings in the second. Before printing the figure, sort the 108 accounts by amount and report at least three numbers: how many accounts, the total, and the largest single balance. An average that hides a Rs 40,000 defaulter is not a management figure; it is a comfort figure.
It also matters for the commissioner's target: Rs 1,08,000 of brought-forward arrears cannot be counted against this year's 75% demand target without double-counting, so the shortfall of Rs 3,99,600 stands as computed on current demand alone.
3. Recommend which category the two recovery staff should pursue in the remaining ten days. Justify the choice with yield per contact, and state the assumption your recommendation depends on.
Read the worked answer
Outstanding by category (unpaid share x demand):
- Domestic: 20% of 4,86,000 = Rs 97,200, across 108 connections, average Rs 900
- Commercial: 35% of 8,64,000 = Rs 3,02,400, across 126 connections, average Rs 2,400
- Institutional: 50% of 13,50,000 = Rs 6,75,000, across 150 connections, average Rs 4,500
Total outstanding Rs 10,74,600, which reconciles with 27,00,000 - 16,25,400.
Recommendation: institutional first, commercial second, domestic through notices rather than visits. With two staff and roughly 10 working days, the practical limit is about 15-20 personal contacts a day, say 300-400 contacts in all. Institutional contacts return about Rs 4,500 each against Rs 2,400 commercial and Rs 900 domestic. Even a modest success rate on institutions recovers more than a high success rate on domestic visits. Institutional defaulters are also few in number relative to the money, so they can be worked through systematically, and the institutional list is the only one with telephone numbers - contact is possible today without field visits. Domestic can be moved by printed notices and camp collection, not by staff time.
Assumptions to state. (a) Institutional connections are billed and not disputed or under assessment - if they are, recovery action stalls and the maths changes; (b) large institutional defaulters do not need the municipal commissioner's clearance before disconnection is threatened; (c) the manual register is reasonably current. If (a) fails, the ranking collapses back to commercial.