VIJAYAWADA: With an objective to curtail the mounting dues to be paid by government departments, the Energy Department has decided to install smart prepaid meters in all offices. Tenders have already been floated for the meters that will require the government departments to pay the bill in advance, thus avoiding the cases of non-payment from burdening the already cash-strapped power distribution companies. Even though the power companies have been stopping the supply to domestic users if they fail to pay the bill, they have not been in a position to do the same in the case of government offices. This has resulted in the dues from government departments mounting to Rs 7,005.92 crore, as of end of January this year, with Panchayat Raj and Rural Development and Water Resources departments accounting for 90 per cent of them.
With the dues have been growing year-on-year, the Energy department officials have decided to install prepaid smart meters. Once the installation is done, the government offices will have to pay the bill in advance. And once the number of units commensurate to the bill paid are exhausted, they will have to recharge it. Otherwise, the supply would be stopped.
“We have asked the discoms to go ahead with the installation and they have floated the tenders for the same. Once the tenders are finalised, the installation would begin,” joint managing director of APTRANSCO KVN Chakradhar Babu told TNIE. While the government departments would still continue to owe the discoms the earlier dues, the new meters would help in putting the brakes on the dues from shooting up. They will also help the debt-ridden discoms in doing away with borrowing of funds from financial institutions to cover for the unpaid bills. The Energy department is also planning to introduce ‘at source deduction’ so that there won’t be any scope for non-remittance by the discoms. The officials expect that the installation may take about three months, based on the availability and supply of the smart prepaid meters.