The Delhi Jal Board, the government agency responsible for providing potable water to the National Capital Region, is set to incur a loss of more than Rs 600 crore for the financial year 2018-2019, a bulk of it suspected to be the result of repeated sops offered to consumers.

This figure has increased by more than three times in five years.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is the chairman of the DJB.

The tentative figure given by the DJB in response to an RTI show that the department suffered a loss of Rs 663 crore for the year 2018-2019. The loss for the year 2015-16 was Rs 220.19 crore while for 2016-17 the losses stood at Rs 516.15 crore, the RTI revealed.

In 2015, the AAP government’s decision to waive water arrears and in some cases, entire pending bill amount may have attributed to the DJB’s losses.

The scheme had offered 100 per cent waiver on late payment surcharge and principal sum to the colonies under category ‘E’ to ‘H’, and a rebate of 25-75 per cent on principal sum to colonies that come in ‘A’ to ‘D’ category.

The DJB had proposed that the board be compensated for the waived amount by the Delhi government. The proposal was not accepted and losses had to be borne by the DJB.

In 2015, The AAP had won 67 out of the 70 Assembly seats.

Ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections of 2020, Arvind Kejriwal had announced water arrears of those who have functional water meters at their homes. A total of 13 lakh were expected to benefit out of this scheme.

The AAP retained power, winning 62 of the 70 seats.