NAMAKKAL: The TANGEDCO, which pulls the plug on commoners defaulting on bill payments, has no such option with various government departments that have defaulted on bill payments for years. As a result, the arrears keep increasing every year.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) officials told TNIE the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) was battling a financial crisis due to multiple reasons, including rising cost of power generation; increase in coal price and the cost of power purchased through external agreements; transportation cost; and additional commitments. “It is in this situation that the government departments are being wilful defaulters,” they said.
“The unpaid power bills running into hundreds of crores of rupees by various government departments including Police, PWD (Public Works Department), local bodies and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board) has severely hit the PSU. The large pending dues have made it difficult for the Corporation to pay private generators and undertake development works,” a senior official worried. He said when the power supply was disrupted for defaulting, the departments released only a part or a small amount of the due, and it was done repeatedly.
On their next course of action, the TANGEDCO official said, at a recent meeting held in Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) office in Chennai, they decided not to encourage giving new power connections to the defaulting government departments until the outstanding bills were paid. “We also organise district-level meetings, led by collectors, with defaulters across the State frequently. Still, collecting the dues from them has become a tough task,” he said.
“If the government’s revenue collection is affected, Section 421 of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) empowers the district collector to issue a warrant for attachment of movable property belonging the defaulter or to recover the pending due like how it’s done for recovery of land revenue arrears,” the official said. He also questioned why not the district collectors invoke such a mechanism to recover dues from government departments as well.
Namakkal Municipality Commissioner P Ponnambalam said the State Finance Corporation had been collecting TANGEDCO’s dues from them. At the same time, PWD officials said they were unaware of the pending payments. Namakkal Superintending Engineer (SE) of TANGEDCO K Balasubramaniam said: “Local bodies have started paying the pending amounts nowadays. Steps have been taken to collect the dues from other departments as well.”
Outstanding debt of TANGEDCO and TANTRANSCO is `1,34,119.94 crore. This was `31,040.12 crore in 2011-12. (332 per cent increase over the period)
What the psu PLANS TO DO
On their next course of action, a TANGEDCO official said, at a recent meeting held at the TNEB office in Chennai, they decided not to give new power connections to the defaulting government departments until the outstanding bills were paid
