Noida residents offered one-time settlement for power and water dues

The scheme for water dues will be offered next month, while the one for power dues will be on offer from November 8 to December 31

The Noida authority has decided to bring a one-time settlement scheme for thousands of consumers who are defaulting on payment of their water bills, officials aware of the matter said on Monday. The scheme will allow them to get waivers on interest components imposed on defaulted amounts for their respective water bill payment.

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The authority plans to recover their dues to the tune of ₹150 crore from the scheme. Noida has at least 86,000 consumers, including realtors, industrial units, individual consumers, and 267 bulk water consumers, who are defaulting on payment despite repeated notices. A consumer is considered a bulk consumer if their dues are higher than ₹5 lakh. Bulk consumers include group housing societies, industrial units, factories, commercial units, and others, said officials.

In the current financial year, the Noida authority could only recover ₹20 crore out of their ₹80 crore target, said officials.

“We will bring the one-time settlement scheme (OTS) next month once all paperwork formalities are completed. Since the board has already approved the proposal on giving the waiver, we are yet to get the date as to when the scheme must be started,” said PK Kaushik, general manager of the Noida authority.

According to the proposal, the authority will offer a 40% waiver on interest if the defaulter pays total dues in January. If the dues are paid in February, the waiver on interest will be 30%, and in March, it will be 20% on interest. The authority levies 9.5% rate on the principal amount, and if the default continues despite the notice, then the rate of interest keeps increasing.

The authority wants to collect revenue by offering waivers because it spends more on distribution than annual revenue collections.

“We spend around ₹200 crore on maintenance and delivering water to our consumers against our revenue collection of around ₹100 crore per year. Our revenue collection will increase now as we have started digital payments. With digital applications, the collection will further increase as the consumer gets payment easily. Once the defaulters make payment, we will streamline the digital payment system to better collect water bill dues,” said a Noida authority official.

Meanwhile, the Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) is planning to offer an OTS for power consumers in Noida, officials said on Monday. PVVNL, which operates under the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), will offer the OTS from November 8 to December 31 in three phases.

The scheme will enable power consumers to clear their arrears without having to pay the surcharge payable on the principal amount. Under the scheme, interest up to 100% will be waived on payment of power dues by domestic, agricultural, commercial, industrial and private entities in a single time or instalments, said officials.

The OTS was announced by the energy minister AK Sharma, on Saturday.

PVVNL, chief engineer, Noida, Rajeev Mohan, said, “The scheme will come into effect under three stages starting November 8, and will remain in force for 54 days till December 31. Low and medium voltage (LMV 1) (domestic connection), LMV 2 (commercial connection), LMV 4B (private connection), LMV 5 (private tubewell), and LMV 6 (industrial), will be able to avail the scheme”.

For consumers with private tube-wells, interest will be waived on the arrears till March 31, 2023, while other consumers will avail of the waiver on arrears till October 31, 2023. The consumers with private tube wells would be able to avail of the scheme by paying 30% of their dues generated till March 31, 2023, as the registration fee, while all other consumers would be able to avail of the scheme by paying 30% of their dues generated till October 31, 2023, as the registration fee, according to officials.

Mohan added, “To register for the scheme, power consumers can visit the website (uppcl.org).”

PVVNL officials said that the registered consumers paying in one go will be given a maximum of 30 days’ time to pay their current bills along with the arrears, while those consumers who have been served recovery certificates will also be able to avail benefits of the scheme.

Officials said that power consumers charged with electricity theft would also get a rebate on payment of compounding charges levied on them as a penalty.