He further added that the process will continue in all the households and commercial units in the city. The tax called as “water service charge” was based on the size of the ferrule provided by the civic body

“Water tax has to be implanted in the city to prevent the wastage of water. Otherwise, the way the groundwater level is depleting in the city, it will bring serious water crisis and ecological problem to the citizens,” said Bhattacharya while speaking in a ‘Save Water’ campaign programme organized by PC Chandra Jewelers, a city business house on Monday.

“We have decided to install water meters in housings as a part of the pilot project. Based on the results we will install water meters across the city. Already we have installed the water meters in many commercial units and the KMC earns around Rs 6.5 crore from the commercial units as water tax.

Moreover, it has reduced the wastage and misuse of water to a large extent,” he added.

Around 258 million gallons of surface water is supplied by the KMC per day across the city while 25 million gallons of ground water are provided in areas where KMC is unable to provide surface water. According to a survey conducted by the KMC, 35 per cent of filtered water is wasted everyday.

However, imposition of water tax has been a long-standing project and was mooted at the tenure of Mayor Prasanta Chatterjee, though it could not be executed due to the stiff resistance of the Left Front partners, including Forward Bloc.