CHENNAI: To increase revenue, TANGEDCO has strictly instructed officials to collect dues of Rs 3,310 crore from government departments. District collectors have been requested to hold frequent meetings on the issue. Sources said TANGEDCO has been facing a financial crisis owing to various reasons and government departments have been wilful defaulters.
These departments’ unpaid power bills, which run into hundreds of crores of rupees, have made it difficult for the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) to pay private generators and undertake development work. The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) has the most outstanding dues, followed by village panchayats.
The source also pointed out that when power supply to a government department was stopped because dues were not paid, the department only paid a part of the money. Accordingly, the PSU decided to hold off new connections to defaulting departments until the outstanding bills were cleared.
Though district collectors held meetings with defaulters, collecting arrears from departments has been difficult. A senior official told TNIE that though TWAD and local bodies are the major defaulters, they are paying the PSU nowadays. “The Union government gave instructions to initiate a phase-wise action plan for metering all connections before the 2023-24 financial year. We are discussing it. Nevertheless, only the State government has the authority to take such a decision,” the official added.
“Besides, as per TANGEDCO’s order, our focus is on identifying consumers who get multiple connections in the same premises, leading to losses for TANGEDCO. We advise the consumers to merge the connections,” the official said.