Wasa suffers a 41 percent systems loss at present because of various reasons, sources said, but is trying to curb the loss. However, they said the revenue collection has increased.

"Wasa collected Tk 169 crore in revenue in the last fiscal year. The collection was Tk 138 crore in the previous fiscal year, an increase of Tk 31 crore," said a high official of Wasa. "Our revenue earning is gradually increasing and we hope this increase will help cut down the loss," he said.

He ruled out the possibilities of Wasa earning more revenue because of increase in new consumers. "Wasa is having new connection holders, but not in such a large numbers to bring in a considerable increase in rvenue," the official said. "Our collection has increased because of the new measures adopted," he said.

The official said the change in the billing system of Wasa proved fruitful. Earlier, it was handled manually but it has been totally computerised since last year. Moreover, the bill is now prepared on a monthly basis though previously it was prepared once every two months. "We now try to ensure that consumers receive bills on time, with a proper meter reading to avoid hazards in paying bills in due time," he said.

He also added a three-member task force has been assigned to each of Wasa's zonal offices to supervise the entire billing system and to prevent any slips.

But illegal connection holders have outnumbered around 2,17,000 legal consumers in the city. Some 77,000 of the legal consumers also do not use meters leading to mismanagement in revenue collection. Some dishonest meter readers help these consumers avoid paying bills by collecting money from them through underhand dealings.

Wasa systems loss costs at least Tk 50 crore in revenue each year. When asked, the high official of revenue department admitted theft and use of illegal water connections to be the reasons for systems loss. However, he said sometimes it becomes hard to detect an illegal connection. "But each of our zonal offices conduct regular drive to detect and disconnect such illegal connections," he said.