KUALA LUMPUR: Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) recorded a total of RM760.19 million in sewerage bill arrears up to December last year, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said domestic consumers contributed to the highest overall unpaid bills (RM463.77 million or 61.01 per cent), followed by commercial users (RM255.51 million 33.61 per cent), government (RM33.23 mllion or 4.37 per cent) and industries (RM7.67 million or 1.01 per cent).
"Of the overall arrears, consumers in three states have the highest total amount, namely, Selangor (RM287.60 million or 37.83 per cent), Kuala Lumpur federal territory (RM107.42 million or 14.13 per cent) and Perak (RM69.54 million or 9.15 per cent).
"A total RM7.29 million in arrears was owed by federal agencies, state governments (RM6.78 million), local governments (RM13 million) and other government agencies (RM5.91 million)," he said in reply to a question from Chan Ming Kai (PH-Alor Setar).
Tuan Ibrahim said 92 per cent of the cumulative IWK bills (about RM9.7 billion) up to Dec 31 were paid, last year.
He said several measures were taken to recover unpaid bills from the agencies, including submitting scheduled reports of arrears to them, holding meetings with chief accountants and implementing bulk payment systems.
"However, a sum of the arrears is deemed as bad debts, mainly comprising sewerage bills accumulated prior to the implementation of bulk payments and could be written off.
"Meanwhile, the tariff review currently being carried out does not involve public (accounts)," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Nga Kor Ming (PH-Teluk intan).