India, April 1 -- The Delhi Jal Board's (DJB) water bill penalty waiver scheme has seen modest uptake since its launch last October, with about Rs.550 crore recovered from around 408,000 consumers so far, even as total outstanding dues exceed Rs.80,000 crore, shows data from the water utility.

The pace of recovery remained lukewarm even after the scheme was extended on January 30, with only around 77,000 additional consumers coming forward, helping the DJB collect an extra Rs.120 crore over two months (till March 30).

The scheme, which was earlier restricted to domestic consumers, was widened on January 30 to include commercial users, but response from that segment has remained limited. According to DJB, only around 3,500 non-domestic c...