Delhi model a far cry as UP govt depts alone owe Rs 15K cr in power bills

Uttar Pradesh may find it unviable to follow the Delhi model of free electricity as energy minister Shrikant Sharma indicated in the Vidhan Sabha here on Friday.

Uttar Pradesh may find it unviable to follow the Delhi model of free electricity as energy minister Shrikant Sharma indicated in the Vidhan Sabha here on Friday.

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Nevertheless, the recovery of power dues from government departments alone could easily enable the state to at least put off tariff increase for the next four-five years, if not provide free power, energy department sources said.

According to the sources, the government departments alone owed Rs 15,000 crore electricity dues in Uttar Pradesh, higher than in any other state. This is the situation even as the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) may soon propose a tariff increase for the coming financial year, quoting its mounting deficit that has reached Rs 90,000 crore.

As per the recently released minutes of the conference of state energy ministers in Gujarat in October last year, Union power minister RK Singh also explained that tariff increases could be moderated if the issues of power theft, non-billing and non-collection were addressed since the losses were passed on to consumers in tariffs.

The issue of non-payment of dues by government departments in many states came in for a detailed discussion at the conference.

“Mounting government department dues continue to be a cause for concern. They have increased from Rs 36,900 crore in the financial year 18 to Rs 41,743 crore, which indicates that the states are not even paying the current dues, leading to accumulation of payment dues,” the minister said.

He also urged the states to pay the government departments’ dues of Rs 42,000 crore to the discoms, which would de-stress the sector and requested representatives to liquidate the same within a period of six months to wipe out the problem.

Discoms, he added, should in turn arrange to pay dues to the power generating entities in another six months’ timeline.

Telangana had outstanding government department dues of Rs 7,298 crore and the state informed that around 9,000 prepaid meters had been installed in the government offices that should solve the problem of arrears in future.

Andhra Pradesh said the dues were mainly owed by two departments namely Rs 3,000 crore against streetlights and Rs 1,700 crore against irrigation pumps.

Maharashtra had reduced their government department dues considerably by deducting at least 50% of the expenditure towards electricity bills from the allocation to panchayats and local bodies as a part of the devolution of the 14th Finance commission.

Tamil Nadu requested some financial assistance to liquidate high generating companies dues while UP pleaded that the benefits accrued to its discoms due to UDAY programme were being nullified because of the regulator adjusting the same against regulatory assets.

While there is no mention in the minutes about the government department dues in UP, a senior UPPCL official disclosed that total electricity dues pending against the government departments were as much as around Rs 15,000 core. This accounts for more than 35% of Rs 42,000 crore dues that government departments owe in major states.

In UP, departments like irrigation, jal sansthan, urban development etc are said to be the major defaulters.

“The government does make budgetary provision for electricity bills but most of the departments spend the money on other heads instead of paying current bills, leave alone clearing arrears,” said the official. Installation of 100% prepaid meters is seen as the lasting solution to the problem not only with regard to government departments, but also private consumers who owe around Rs 20,000 crore.

“The private tube wells alone (owned by farmers in villages) have around Rs 8,000 crore power dues pending against them in UP while overall turn-up of bill paying consumers in rural areas is as low as 29% while in urban areas too 12% of consumers do not pay their monthly bills,” the official said, adding, “All this hampers UP from replicating the Delhi model.”