Maha to use 14th FC funds to partly bailout debt-laden discom

To enable debt-laden Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) partially recover arrears due from public departments, state government has decided to provide nearly 50 per cent of the dues from the 14th Finance Commission payouts, according to a senior government official.

MSEDCL is suffocating under arrears worth Rs 39,000 crore spread across 1.41 crore consumers. Among them the highest default is from public utilities engaged in drinking water distribution, street lights, together having outstanding sum of Rs 4,800 crore.

As of end-March, gram panchayats, zilla parishads and Jeevan Pradhikaran owe nearly Rs 4,215 crore to the utility, while the arrears from municipalities have increased to Rs 680 crore.

"We have taken various initiatives to recover the dues and have also told these agencies to pay up," principal secretary, energy, Arvind Singh told PTI.

He further said these public entities have been asked to pay 50 per cent of the dues in instalments, while the rest 50 per cent would be coughed up from the state's share of the 14th Finance Commission.

The total outstanding payments include Rs 57,56,000 due from household consumers but the major chunk of outstanding are with commercial organisations who owe over Rs 478 crore and their number in state is 5.73 lakh.

Another huge outstanding is with HT and LT category industrial consumers who have defaulted on Rs 847 crore and their number is 1.05 lakh consumers. The outstanding from 38 lakh agricultural consumers is Rs 23,000 crore.