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OTS evokes best-ever response: UPPCL
Lucknow: Despite energy minister Shrikant Sharma expressing displeasure at the ‘slow progress’ of the one-time settlement scheme (OTS) in a meeting last week, the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management has claimed that never did a surcharge waiver scheme evoke such an overwhelming response in the past
Lucknow: Despite energy minister Shrikant Sharma expressing displeasure at the ‘slow progress’ of the one-time settlement scheme (OTS) in a meeting last week, the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management has claimed that never did a surcharge waiver scheme evoke such an overwhelming response in the past.
“More than 45 lakh consumers have availed the OTS and cleared their dues worth around ₹5,000 crore so far,” UPPCL chairman M Devraj said, adding, “Both the number of consumers availing the OTS and the amount recovered from them as dues is the highest ever.”
He said under the Asaan Kisht Yojana (name given for the OTS) launched in November, 2019, only 24 lakh consumers participated in the scheme, paying only ₹2050 crore dues. “Earlier in 2018 also only 27 defaulters availed of the OTS,” he said.
Holding a virtual meeting on March 27, the energy minister pulled up the officials for tardy progress of the OTS, warning that the performance of the scheme would be linked to their performance. Giving discom-wise OTS figures, he said, “The Agra discom’s progress is 20.39%, Lucknow discom’s 17.25%, Varanasi discom’s 15.75%, Meerut discom’s 35.29% and KESCO’s 57.40% even as the scheme is going to end.”
UPPCL announced the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme in the end of February for all urban and rural domestic consumers as well as private tube wells (farmers) providing for 100% waiver of surcharge/interest on their electricity dues provided they cleared the principal amount at one go by March 31.
Devraj said while the OTS this time had evoked the best-ever response, there was certainly scope to do even better by encouraging more consumers to participate in the scheme. “This is why we have extended the OTS till April 15, asking our engineers to reach out to more consumers and ask them to avail the opportunity,” he said.
Though the cash-strapped UPPCL brings the OTS almost every year to boost its revenue, the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) in 2018 said the OTS was a bad practice that benefited dishonest consumers who did not pay their bills regularly in anticipation of the OTS. The commission ruled that in future it would not allow the UPPCL to include its loss of interest/surcharge on defaulters’ bills into its deficit to claim higher tariff to make up for the deficit later.
“In 2019, the UPPCL recovered ₹3,700 crore dues from 22 lakh consumers but also ended up surrendering ₹1,800 crore interest on defaulters’ bills because of its inability to make them pay their dues regularly,” people dealing with the issue said.
Devraj said the financial position of the UPPCL was certainly not good and urged consumers to pay their bills regularly on time to enable the corporation to provide better services including uninterrupted power.
“Now, we have asked discoms to ensure that each field employee contacts at least ‘five never paid consumers’ everyday under his jurisdiction, encouraging them to clear their pending dues and disconnect their power supply if they do not oblige,” he said.
As per the status till five months ago, as many as 82.27% of rural consumers had not paid even a single electricity bill since April 2020 while only a little more than 17% of the total around two crore rural consumers had paid their bills at least once during the same period.
“Now our focus is on these ‘never paid consumers’ both in the villages and cities,” Devraj said. He said UPPCL had abundant electricity to meet the summer demand. “The only thing is that the electricity we supply must be paid for,” he added.
