CMPFO power supply to employees at nominal rate cost Rs2cr:CAG

Despite government directions, CMPFO, an autonomous body, did not install electric meters in its residential quarters at Dhanbad and supplied electricity at nominal rate, resulting in under-recovery of Rs 2.16 crore from from 2010-11 to 2014-15, government auditor CAG said today.
"The inaction on the part of CMPFO management over the years to install electric meters in the residential quarters at Dhanbad and thereby failure to recover the actual energy charges from the employees resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs 2.16 crore on consumption of electricity from 2010-11 to 2014-15," CAG said in its report tabled in Parliament today.
The Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO), with headquarters in Dhanbad, was established under the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1948.

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) further said that for effective recovery of electricity charges from its employees, CMPFO never initiated any fruitful action for installation of meter for recording actual consumption of electricity in the residential quarters.
Subsequently, CMPFO revised (March 2010) the fixed rates of electricity charges which ranged from Rs 250 to Rs 700 per month for different types of quarters retrospectively from February 2010.
"Despite such enhancement of fixed rate of recovery of electricity charges, there was wide gap between energy charges paid to JSEB (Jharkhand State Electricity Board) for residential consumption and recovery of the same from its employees over the years," it said.

CAG had highlighted the issue on several occasions, objecting such avoidable expenditure through audit reports before Parliament with the expectation that suitable action would be taken to stop recurrence of the same.
However, till date there was no installation of electric meter and thus under-recovery of energy charges from its employees is still being continue, it said.
Due to lack of initiative on the part of CMPFO for gainful utilisation of its office space and residential complex lying vacant for more than eight years, it said, CMPFO deprived itself from the benefits of having the infrastructure located at a prime place in Hyderabad and also lost the opportunity to earn rent of Rs 66.46 lakh from unutilised space from March 2014 to December, 2015.