KOCHI: The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) will launch a statewide disconnection drive on Friday to recover lockdown period arrears.According to KSEB officers, a section of consumers have defaulted payment of arrears during the lockdown period further straining the finances of the state power utility. The plan is to recover around `700 crore from defaulters. In the first stage, KSEB will target high-profile consumers.
Though many were served notices to clear the arrears by December 31, most ignore them. Many have approached the state government seeking relaxations citing lockdown blues. “We will allow payment of dues in three to four installments for genuine cases. But many commercial establishments are using the lockdown as an excuse to get the charges waived. We are purchasing 70 per cent of the power from outside and we need funds to make payments. The KSEB has taken `1,000 crore loan during the lockdown period and if the arrears are cleared we will be able to survive the crisis,” said a top official.
The Centre has raised the borrowing limit of states from 3 per cent of the gross state domestic product to 5 per cent, and 0.25 per cent of the additional 2 per cent has been linked to power reforms. The reforms include direct transfer of agriculture subsidy and reduction of annual technical and commercial gap. “For this we have to collect the arrears from defaulters including government institutions,” the official said.According to the KSEB, defaulters include cinema houses, community halls, MSMEs, industries, commercial consumers and religious institutions.