J-K govt announces amnesty scheme for power consumers

Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday announced amnesty scheme for power consumers across union territory (UT) asking them to clear their arrears in three installments by May 31.

Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring said that the decision was taken by the Administrative Council which met here today under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu.

He said that the Council approved an amnesty scheme for the power consumers which will come into effect from March 1, 2020.

"It decided that as a welfare measure and in order to give an opportunity to power consumers to prevent disconnection of their connections and to facilitate easy payment, the amnesty scheme envisages payment of arrears in three easy instalments," Kansal, who is also government spokesperson, said at a press conference here.

He further said 25 per cent of the payment is to be completed by March 31, 2020, 40 per cent by April 30, 2020 and the remaining 35 per cent by May 31, 2020.

On timely and complete payment, a full waiver of interest and penalty will be provided by the department.

"Consumers who miss the first instalment will lose 5 per cent of the benefit, while those missing the second one will lose 10 per cent of the benefit," he said.

Failure to fully pay all three instalments by May 31 will lead to immediate disconnection. It has also been decided that no power will be supplied to defaulting customers after June 1 unless the arrears are cleared in full.

"It is estimated that waiver of penalties and interest will cost around Rs 600 crore to the government as against total pending dues of Rs 3,000 crore," he said.