Delta state levies borehole, vows to penalize offenders

The Delta state government has recently updated an order for the collection and payment of borehole levy and other water-allied levies, and reiterated commitments to pursue and penalize offenders.

The order stipulates that domestic, industrial and commercial boreholes are to be levied. The order places application form for borehole at N1,000.00 and inspection fee at N1,000.00.

While the State government license fee for domestic boreholes according to the order will cost citizens of the state N2,500.00 per annum, the license fee for commercial boreholes costs N35,000 per annum, and for industrial and government establishments, the license fee is N50,000.00 per annum.

The order stipulates that while private hospitals in the State would be charged N10,000.00 per annum for the water license, churches and mosques would be charged N5,000.00 and industries using water as raw materials would be charged N50,000.00.

For water connection service, the State government said N3,000.00 would be charged for application form, N4,500.00 for new water connection fee, N1,000.00 for inspection fee and N2,000.00 for reconnection fee.

The state government said for tankers services by water board, N500.00 per trip would be charged for every 500 litres water supplied. It said N1,000.00 per trip would charged for 1000 litres water supplied, N2,000.00 per trip for 2000 litres of water supplied and N3,000.00 per trip for every 5000 litres of water supplied.

Meanwhile, citizens of the state have expressed displeasure over the new levy for borehole and other water-allied levies.