Govt to subsidise water for rural consumers

With the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) taking over rural water supply from the Department of Water Affairs (DWA), consumers were experiencing higher tariffs because the parastatal is legally required to pay VAT.

As required by law, WUC built in VAT into the water bills for rural consumers, effectively transforming its water supply takeover into a tariff hike. However, officials of the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources yesterday said from June 1, the government would exempt certain consumers in rural areas from VAT and return rural water tariffs to the levels they were at before the WUC takeover.