NWC collects $264 million to buy meters The National Water Commission (NWC) collected $264.9 million from its customers through the K Factor applied to their bills to cover meter costs under NWC's efficiency improvement programme. The K factor of four per cent which was added to the Price Adjustment Mechanism was applied in the last tariff review February 1999. This was designed to enable the NWC to generate additional funds for the purchase and installation of meters and pumps which would aid in improving the overall efficiency of the company. The K Factor was approved for two years from February 1999 to February 2001. The Office of Utilities Regulation committed to report on the usage and application of the funds collected through the K factor and to issue a bulletin each quarter for the duration of the fund. For the duration of the Fund, the total billed for active accounts was $294.4 million. The collections of $264.9 million represent 90 per cent of the billings, since a provision for bad debts of ten per cent was made. The NWC reports indicate that it had expected to collect $292 million for the two-year period but fell short by approximately $27.1 million in the first year of the programme. In a press release, the OUR expressed its satisfaction that the NWC exercised appropriate diligence in the application of the K factor funds to the designated programmes. The NWC spent $234.1 million on meters of which $169.9 million was funded by the K factor. This represented the purchase and installation of 82,673 of the 111,446 meters installed in the period October 1998 to March 2001. The K Factor fund also provided $95 million for the Pump Replacement Programme.
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