Government departments including bungalows occupied by politicians have started feeling the heat as the Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (MePDCL) has issued notice to all defaulting consumers who failed to pay outstanding electricity bills.
The general notice issued as per the relevant provisions of the MSERC (Electricity Supply Code) Regulations, 2018 informed that the MePDCL shall start a rigorous electricity disconnection drive from April 16.
For the past few months, the MeEPDCL had implemented the ‘One Time Settlement Scheme’ to give chance to all categories of defaulting consumers (including permanently disconnected consumers) to recover long outstanding dues of electricity bills as on March 31, 2020.
The said scheme was valid up to March 31, 2021.
As the scheme has expired, the MeEPDCL said that this general notice should be treated as notice for disconnection to all defaulting consumers of the MePDCL.
The list of defaulters is available at the website of the MeECL www.meecl.nic.in.
There shall also be prosecution proceedings against those permanently disconnected consumers who have failed to settle their dues under the scheme or otherwise.
From various government departments including government bungalows to industrial units, the MeEPDCL has a long list of defaulting consumers who did not pay the electricity bills for many years.
The outstanding dues to be paid by these defaulters to the MeEPDCL come to around Rs 465 crore.
The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is facing acute financial constraints due to aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses which include power theft and inaccurate billing.
Out of 2,300 million units of power injected, the MeECL could bill only for 1,700 million units, thereby losing around 600 million units of power every year.
At an average tariff of Rs 5, the MeECL is losing Rs 300 crore a year (600 million units multiply by Rs 5) only because of billing inefficiency.
The MeECL has in the past few months gradually improved its revenue collection due to billing efficiency and the monthly revenue has touched an all time high around Rs 102 crore in March, which is the highest collection ever in the history of the MeECL.