Only 31% paid power bills of March in GB Nagar, discom collects just 10% of total monthly revenue

Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh said despite launching several awareness drives asking consumers to make online payments of electricity bills, the revenue collection has dwindled in the district.

The lockdown announced to control the Covid-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on the cash flows of the discom in Gautam Budh Nagar district. This otherwise highest electricity revenue generating district in Uttar Pradesh is now faced with dismal collections. Only 31% consumers have paid their electricity bills of March 2020, and the discom has collected less than 10% of its power revenue last month.

The chief engineer further said apart from domestic consumers, even industrial and commercial consumers have shown a lukewarm response in paying their power bills (Photo by Abhinav Saha/Hindustan Times)

Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh said despite launching several awareness drives asking consumers to make online payments of electricity bills, the revenue collection has dwindled in the district.

“Of the ₹146 crore electricity bills of March 2020, we have so far collected around ₹14 crore, which is even less than 10%. Of the 1.57 lakh consumers who had been served their electricity bills, only 49,000 consumers have made the payment of their bills so far, which is approximately 31%,” he said.

Singh also said before the lockdown, the average monthly revenue collection in the district was ₹300 crore. “The revenue collection and consumption have drastically come down after the lockdown. Before lockdown, over 70% consumers used to pay their electricity bills online, contributing more than 80% of the overall power bills in the district,” he said.

Singh also said the PVVNL is making all efforts to encourage consumers to pay online as they can’t go to any billing counters during the lockdown. “We have made all arrangements to ensure uninterrupted power supply these days. Consumers won’t have to pay additional charges if they are paying online as these additional charges levied by the bank will be paid by us. We have also launched a round-the-clock helpline number -- 1912 -- for consumers to call in case of any inconvenience,” he said.

It may be noted that the Centre has issued directions to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to provide a moratorium on payments for three months to discoms, but with few takers for 40% of the electricity in the discoms’ supply kitty, it is leading to a huge loss of revenue for discoms.

From November 2019 onwards, the power generation companies are already suffering delays in payments from discoms in most states, including Uttar Pradesh. The discoms have legally binding contracts, especially with big companies, which draw electricity in large quantities, with provisions for the latter to pay even when they don’t draw power from the grid. But, in the current scenario, which is a force majeure, the discoms may not be able to enforce those provisions as the failure to draw electricity is entirely based on factors beyond the control of companies.