BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government on Thursday hiked the power tariff by 10 paise per unit to reduce losses and tide over revenue deficit by putting additional burden on consumers, various departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) owe crores of rupees of electricity dues since years.
Altogether 53 Government departments, civic bodies and other autonomous agencies have outstanding bills of Rs 482.75 crore by December last year. Interestingly, Energy Department, which looks after the power scenario in the State, owes nearly Rs 2.30 crore towards pending bills.
Housing and Urban Development Department has the highest dues of Rs 219.17 crore followed by State PSU Rs 35.17 crore, School and Mass Education Department Rs 31.50 crore, Panchayati Raj Rs 28.79 crore, Public Enterprises Rs 28.16 crore and Rural Development Rs 26.32 crore.
Similarly, Health and Family Welfare Department has pending bills amounting Rs 17.42 crore, Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation Rs 16.54 crore, Home Department Rs 14.58 crore, Water Resources Rs 14.41 crore, RWSS Rs 12.67 crore, Revenue and Disaster Management Rs 5.71 crore, Higher Education Rs 5.21 crore, Law Department Rs 4.88 crore, Works Rs 3.85 crore, Textile and Handloom Rs 2.84 crore, ST and SC Development Rs 2.55 crore, Forest and Environment Rs 1.91 crore, Agriculture Rs 1.77 crore and Cooperation Rs 1.27 crore.
Even as the departments under Government control should be model consumers for others to pay the outstanding bills, the power dues pending on these agencies have left many aggrieved.
Stating that lower middle and middle class will be severely hit, trade union leader Jayanta Das said it is ridiculous to increase power tariff instead of collecting pending bills and imposing fine for delayed payments.
‘’The electricity officials resort to disconnection of power supply whenever a poor consumer fails to pay the dues. But, why would the same action not be initiated against the big defaulters who owe crores of rupees?’’ he questioned.
Meanwhile, the Finance Department has issued advisory to all departments and district Collectors for timely payment of electricity dues in view of availability of provisions in the Budget. They have been asked to pay the arrears latest by March 31.
It has been ensured that full allocation for payment of electricity dues is made in the budget estimate for 2017-18 on the basis of the requirement furnished by the departments. Accordingly, a provision of Rs 240.37 crore has been made for payment of power dues.
The Finance Department has warned that if any delayed payment surcharge is levied, it would be personal responsibility of the heads of the departments concerned.