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Power dues: Punjab govt depts owe over ₹3,000 crore to PSPCL
With power dues of ₹2640.4 crore, Punjab government’s department of water supply and sanitation accounts for about 80% of the pending bills
Multiple state government departments have failed to clear their pending electricity bills worth over ₹3,274 crore, with the department of water supply and sanitation accounting for about 80% of the dues. The department has power dues of ₹2640.4 crore.
Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL) officials said they had already written to the chief secretary to direct the defaulting departments to clear the bills.
“We are regularly communicating with the departments concerned, but there has been no positive response so far. Due to the high pendency, PSPCL is suffering a lot,” another senior PSPCL officials said, requesting not to be named.
Among the other major defaulters are the department of local bodies at ₹393 crore and the heath and family welfare department at ₹149 crore.
According to the documents, department of home affairs and justice owes around ₹25.68 crores to PSPCL. Department of school education also has outstanding bills of ₹12.88 crore.
“We can’t disconnect the electricity connections of these department because there is political pressure, ranging from local MLAs to the ministers of the departments concerned. Had it been a private electricity provider, connections of these departments would have been disconnected long ago,” a senior PSPCL official said.
Principal secretary (power) Tejvir Singh said, “We have been requesting the departments that have not paid the bills to clear them. In fact, the chief secretary had directed the departments concerned to clear the pending bills. Now, we have extended the one time settlement scheme, once more. We are hopeful that they will opt for the scheme and pay the outstanding amount.”
PSPCL, under the OTS scheme, had given an opportunity to clear the arrears of electricity bills and a few government departments came forward.
According to the documents accessed by HT, only 27 applications, worth ₹8.88 crore were received under OTS scheme, which was launched by chief minister Bhagwant Mann in May this year and was later extended multiple times.
Under the scheme, defaulting departments may save the late payment surcharge or pay interest at reduced rates of 9% simple interest, instead of 18% compound interest on late payments. The scheme is valid until December 26.
