UP govt departments top list of power bill defaulters

These departments collectively account for a third of the power bill arrears of the UP Power Corporation Limited

Uttar Pradesh government departments are among the top defaulters of the energy department and together account for a third of the power bill arrears of the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).

The total outstanding receivables of UPPCL till February 2015 were at a whopping Rs 23,890 crore spanning both government and non-government departments. Of this, the government departments and agencies alone account for about Rs 8,000 crore.

Five of the top defaulters viz. irrigation, local bodies, Jal Sansthan, Jal Nigam and river pollution departments, alone account for Rs 2,053 crore of total dues.

Recently, UP power tariffs have been increased by over 10 percent amid vociferous protests by the opposition parties and consumer bodies.

UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad president Avadhesh Kumar Verma lamented UPPCL had failed to realise its total bills and thus the outstanding was increasing every year.

He claimed if the power companies had only managed to recover arrears from consumers, their cash position would have been much better. "With this cash, the power companies could have procured cheaper energy from exchanges instead of buying costly power from private companies."

In the latest figures released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for the month of May 2015 regarding maximum and minimum energy demand and availability, UP clocked power shortage of 11.6 percent against all India average of power shortage at 2.3 percent.

During May 2015, the maximum demand and availability of energy in UP stood at 14,696 mw and 12,991 mw respectively, which means shortage of 1,705 mw. CEA functions under the union power ministry.

While, UP reported power shortage of 11.6 percent, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan have recorded balanced maximum energy demand and availability status.

Bihar stood a distance second with 3 percent power shortage during May 2015, followed by Uttarakhand (2 percent), Gujarat (0.9 percent), Maharashtra (0.8 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (0.1 percent).