MSEDCL arrears at ₹71K crore; appeals to consumers to pay bills

With mounting arrears, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) on Saturday appealed to consumers to co-operate with the agency and pay their bills on time. According to MSEDCL, around 8 million consumers in the state, which includes 4.1 million residential consumers, have not paid even a single month’s bill in the past 10 months, between April 2020 and January 2021.

The state discom said it was under severe stress with arrears to the tune of ₹71,506 crore. The arrears stood at ₹51,146 crore in March 2020, before the lockdown was imposed.

“Every month, 80-85% of power purchase is done via the revenue generated. During the lockdown, we did not disconnect the power supply for any consumer category. However, now we have started to temporary disconnect [supply] since the past one month, after giving several warnings to consumers,” a senior MSEDCL official said.

On Saturday, the discom also stated that of the 980,499 complaints that it has received, 933,324 have been resolved. “We are in the final stages of resolving the rest of the complaints too. Looking at the financial status of the discom, we appeal to consumers to pay their bills on time,” MSEDCL said in a statement.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharastra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had earlier promised relief after a public outcry over consumers receiving hefty bills during lockdown. However, state energy minister Nitin Raut, on November 17, said the state cannot provide any relief and consumers have to pay their bills.

In January 2021, MSEDCL, which supplies power to over 20 million consumers in the state, had also warned consumers of disconnecting power supply if they do not pay bills on time.