Even as the state run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company's (MahaVitaran) monthly recovery has surged to Rs 4,200 crore due to slew of initiatives, burgeoning arrears from the agriculture consumers continue to put its finances under severe stress.
Even as the state run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company's (MahaVitaran) monthly recovery has surged to Rs 4,200 crore due to slew of initiatives, burgeoning arrears from the agriculture consumers continue to put its finances under severe stress.
As of date the arrears are well over Rs 19,272 crore and they are expected to grow further if the agriculture consumers do not make timely payment of monthly bill. There are about 39.82 lakh agriculture consumers of the MahaVitaran’s total consumers of 2.5 crore.
Last month, the state government announced a special amnesty scheme to recover whopping Rs 10,890 crore. The Energy Department will waive their penalty and interest of Rs 8,164 crore on the total pending electricity bills of Rs 19,272 crore. The government has now extended the repayment up to November 15 due to strong opposition from various parties and especially from the agriculture consumers.
The state energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule came out with a novel idea of roping in legislators from the respective constituency to hold workshops and meetings to expedite recovery of long pending arrears from agriculture consumers. However, few legislators have already protested Bawankule’s move citing that it was not their job but it has been the duty of MahaVitaran staff. Some legislators referred to the plight of the farmers due to natural calamity and opposed disconnection of power.
A MahaVitaran officer told DNA,’’ It is true that the non-recovery of arrears from agriculture consumers has been a matter of concern. This is despite continuous efforts from the state government and the MahaVitaran. The State has given electricity meters to 24.41 lakh farmers while 15.41 lakh farmers get power without any meters as they are charged based on horse power. The power is supplied at highly subsidised rate of Rs 1.80 per unit against the total supply cost of Rs 6.50 per unit. The government provides subsidy of Rs 1.65 per unit while the rest is through cross subsidy charge recovered from the commercial and industrial consumers.’’ He admitted that there are limitations to further increase tariff of industry and commercial consumers and in such a scenario the MahaVitaran will have to take further efforts to step up recovery from farm consumers.
The officer informed that government’s annual outgo towards subsidy comes to Rs 4,500 crore while the cross subsidy from the commercial and industrial consumers is of the order of Rs 7,500 crore. MahaVitaran is providing power to about 1.50 lakh new agriculture pumps annually by incurring expenditure of Rs 1.25 lakh per one connection.
He said the increase in the monthly recovery up to Rs 4,200 crore has helped MahaVitaran to avoid delayed payment charges to be made to power generating companies towards power supply and also to maintain the required working capital. ‘’However, this is not enough to keep healthy balance sheet,’’ he noted.
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