Electricity theft of ₹706 crore identified in 5 years

The distribution company said 1,536 cases have been registered for electricity theft in Gurugram in the last 12 months

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has identified electricity theft of ₹706.82 crore, and recovered ₹378 crore in fines over the last five years, after carrying out more than 6 lakh surprise checks across 10 districts in south Haryana, officials said on Tuesday.

The highest number of theft incidents — 2,295 — were reported from Bhiwani, said officials on Tuesday. (Parveen Kumar /HT Photo)

PC Meena, managing director of DHBVN, said, “The focus of the enforcement teams is to ensure that electricity theft is strictly curbed. The teams have been asked to increase random checking in all districts so that action is taken against violators. In the current financial year till August 31, electricity theft worth ₹51.21 crore has been identified and ₹31.22 crore in fines have been collected by the teams. Meters of 61,649 consumers were checked by DHBVN joint teams, of which 13,242 were found to be stealing electricity.”

The highest number of theft incidents were reported from Bhiwani (2295), Palwal (2075), Gurugram (1559), Hisar (1508) and Jind (1326) in the last 12 months. The power utility has divided Gurugram city into two zones - the old city and surrounding sectors come under circle one, while the developing sectors and outskirts fall under circle two. Meena said that in Gurugram 1 and 2 circles, the power utility carried out 3362 checks and found 1559 incidents of thefts in the last 12 months, which led to the cumulative imposition of fines of ₹13.59 crore on violators.

DHBVN officials on Tuesday said that the drive against power theft will be further intensified, with a special focus on large connections. Meena informed that the power utility has reduced technical and distribution losses significantly through technological intervention and theft detections. “We are adopting a multipronged approach to curb Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses which includes technical augmentation of the existing distribution network, increasing the high tension (HT) to low tension (LT) ratio to reduce technical losses, discouraging theft by increasing HT lines, and intensive and targeted theft detection program on high loss feeders,” he said.

The distribution company said 1536 cases have been registered for electricity theft in Gurugram in the last 12 months. “Electricity theft is a legal offence and there is a provision of imposing fine and punishment. DHBVN has launched a portal to reward informers,” Meena added. Officials said that anyone who spots electricity theft can report it on the toll free number 18001801011. Electricity theft can also be reported on the WhatsApp number 7027008325, or by email at hookacrook4dhbvn@dhbvn.org.in or theftinformer@dhbvn.org.in. The Nigam will not disclose the identity of anyone who reports electricity theft and its joint checking team will conduct campaigns from time to time to prevent theft.

According to DHBVN data, in Gurugram circle one, 1291 connections were checked, of which power theft was reported in 2071 connections. Circle two reported 95 incidents of power theft out of 819 connections checked.