UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (File)
TO MEET the expenses of providing free power connection to below poverty line (BPL) families in UP, the Adityanath government will need at least Rs 60 to 70 crore, which the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) plans to borrow from the Power Finance Corporation Limited.
But execution of the project does not seem to be easy as distribution companies of UPPCL are facing huge losses despite the around Rs 39,000-crore bailout it had received under the Centre’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna. An MoU in this regard was signed between the Centre and the previous Akhilesh government in January, 2016.
With the state facing huge line losses due to technical fault or theft, the idea is to minimise losses by metering consumers so that they end up paying for the amount of electricity they used. While ideally the government is expected to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C) to 15 per cent by 2019, till the last financial year, such losses were close to 34 per cent — leading discoms into further financial crunch.
Thus, to reach out to more consumers, in the first phase, the UPPCL has already applied for a loan of Rs 15 crore from the Power Finance Corporation Limited.
Sources said while the state government is hoping that before it needs another such loan, the Centre will come up with a scheme to provide free connections to urban BPL families, the matter will not be resolved so easily as the Union government will have to cater to all such families across the country.
“First of all, it is a free connection, where the government is providing free cable and metre for connection and consumers will have to pay the bills. UPPCL has applied for a little loan, expecting good payment for the electricity used,” said UPPCL Chairman and Principal Secretary (Energy) Alok Kumar.
The state government had signed the ‘Power For All’ agreement with the Centre in April. Under this, the state government had committed to take additional measures to cut its losses, including installing prepaid meters, replacing defective and mechanical metres and conducting raids to check thefts.
“The state government is not in a position to bailout the discoms anymore. It is now hoping that with a little loan, it will be able to gain revenue by installing new metered connections,” said an official.
On July 23, UPPCL had organised 624 camps in UP and handed over on-the-spot connections to 86,000 families. Among those, 58,596 BPL families residing in urban areas were given free connections. The government is set to organise such camps at regular intervals, as it has to cater to around 3 lakh BPL families.
