Discom’s one-time settlement scheme fails to attract defaulters

NOIDA: The one-time settlement scheme of the Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), aimed to recover outstanding dues, has so far received lukewarm response from the defaulters in commercial and industrial categories

NOIDA: The one-time settlement scheme of the Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), aimed to recover outstanding dues, has so far received lukewarm response from the defaulters in commercial and industrial categories. As the scheme is about to end this month, officials of the power distribution company said that out of 12,000 big defaulters, only 900 have opted for the scheme.

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PVVNL chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh said that the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) had asked all the power discoms in the state to launch the one-time settlement scheme for the consumers who could not clear their outstanding dues owing to the Covid-19 crisis. “The scheme was applicable for two months between November 30, 2020 and January 31, 2021. Under this scheme, the consumers in commercial and industrial categories had to get 100% waiver on surcharge on pending electricity bills up to November 30. Earlier, the scheme was applicable for urban and rural domestic consumers only,” he said.

Singh further said that the discom had high hopes to recover at least ₹100 crore through the scheme as the defaulters had to clear the pending dues at one go. “But the response is not very encouraging for us, as out of 12,000 big defaulters, only 900 have opted for it so far. The scheme is ending on January 31,” he said.

The officials said that along with shops, hotels and restaurants, commercial establishments like cinema halls, banks, private hospitals and nursing homes, and schools, among others, were eligible to take benefit of the scheme.

The chief engineer also said that the overall figures of consumers, who opted for the scheme, would rise up to 1,000 as some of the small and medium industrial units having a contracted load less than 75 kW have been reported to clear their outstanding dues directly (offline) at the offices of their areas concerned. “We expect to recover ₹25 crore, which is around 25% of the total dues on these consumers till January 31,” he said.

PVVNL has around 3.5 lakh consumers in Gautam Budh Nagar district, including 35,000 industrial and commercial consumers, the officials said.