Understand the criteria for receiving benefits in water and sewage consumption

This past Friday, the 14th, Geraldo Alckmin, acting vice-president of the republic, sanctioned a new law that created a social tariff for sewage and water for people who are part of the low-income population for the entire Brazil.

Families that will be served by the law will receive a 50% discount on the amount charged for the lowest consumption range, the reduction in this price will only be applied to the first 15 cubic meters that will be used by the consumer. If consumption exceeds 15 cubic meters, the tariff will be charged at the normal price.

The law

Law 4,898 was applied in the DOU (Official Gazette of the Union) and will be applied in month 12 of this year, almost 6 months after its publication. Supply companies will include consumers who have the right automatically, otherwise families will have to ask for the right.

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_{Geraldo Alckmin (photo: reproduction/ Andressa Anholete/ Getty Images Embed)}

If, by chance, the house does not have the installation of a sewage and water system, those entitled to a tariff reduction will also be exempt from the cost of installing the system, and anyone who has an illegal installation of water or sewage pipes may lose their benefit.

How to receive

More than 34 million families will be able to receive the benefit, as they meet the required criteria and, according to Congress, not all consumers who meet the criteria have regular access to water and sewage pipes.

According to a study carried out by Instituto Trata Brasil (ITB), of the more than 74 million Brazilian homes, almost 10 million do not have regular plumbing to the water network and 22 million do not have a sewage collection network.

In order to have access to the benefit of the sewage and water network, it is necessary that the family responsible for the house registered for the benefit has a Single Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico) and that the consumer family that has a person with a disability or an elderly person who receive the Continuous Social Assistance Benefit (BPC).

Featured photo: lack of sanitation in Brazil (Reproduction/ Tercio Teixeira/ Getty Images Embed)