BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Tuesday asked power distribution companies to be tough on willful defaulters of energy bills and take action against consumers having arrears over Rs 25,000.
Minister of State for Energy Dibya Shankar Mishra gave this direction to the Energy department and chief executive officers of distribution companies (discoms) after a review on 5T implementation by the department.
The directive of the Minister came close on the heels of the announcement by Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) to disconnect power supply to those consumers who fail to clear the pending energy bills by January 15, 2020.The Minister directed authorities concerned of Discoms (Cesu, Nesco, Southco and Wesco) to issue notices to defaulting consumers having arrear of more than Rs 25,000 to clear their outstanding bills.
“Failure in clearing the outstanding bills within the stipulated date should follow with action as per the rules,” Mishra said. Arrears pending against consumers in Cesu area of operation is Rs 1,971 crore out of which Rs 691.32 crore is pending against 58,548 consumers while Rs 394 crore is against 1,04,059 consumers for last two years.
Though details of the pending energy bills against consumers of other three discoms are not available, the four distribution utilities have defaulted Gridco in payment of bulk supply power bill to the tune of `5,000 crore.
Emphasising on supply of quality power to the consumer, the Energy Minister asked the discoms to ensure that new consumers get power connection within 48 hours.Energy Secretary Bishnupada Sethi informed the Minister about the steps taken by the department for online registration for new connection in ‘Odisha Biju Sanjog’.
Detailed information for new connection will be made available in Odia and English and steps are afoot for online payment of electricity bill across the State.
The Energy Secretary said work on installation of prepaid energy meters is in progress under which consumers will have to purchase prepaid electricity cards from discoms or from their authorised vendors.
Power connection to the consumers will be disconnected automatically when the balance is exhausted. Power supply will be resumed only after recharging their accounts.
The consumers are being encouraged to pay their energy bill online and for timely payment an incentive of two per cent is given to the consumers. The Minister was also informed that steps have been taken to involve women self help groups in bill collection.