1.41 cr MSEDCL consumers owe utility Rs 39,000 cr

Mumbai: Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) is staring at massive overdues of Rs 39,000 crore.

There are about 1.41 crore consumers of MSEDCL, who owe the utility Rs 39,000 crore. The maximum default is from public utility engaged in drinking water distribution, street light having an outstanding sum of Rs 4,800 crore.

This includes Rs 57,56,000 dues from household consumers but a major chunk of outstanding is with commercial organisations, who owe Rs 478 crore and their number in the State is 5.73 lakh.

Another huge outstanding amount is with high tension (HT) industry and low tension (LT) industry category consumers, who have defaulted on Rs 777.69 crore and their number is 1.05 lakh. Similarly, public drinking water schemes numbering 41,000 have defaulted on payment of massive Rs 1,500 crore, while Rs 3,300 crore is due on account of street lights from 79,000 various public utilities.

The outstanding amount of 38 lakh agricultural pumps is Rs. 22,780.52 crore, which is the highest default amount and Rs 940.79 crore is to come from power looms numbering 45,219 and Rs 79 crore from 57,000 other consumers. Another Rs 7,000 crore is due from 3.57 lakh drinking water supply schemes, whose power supply has been disconnected.

The MSEDCL has set a target of 100 per cent realisation of supplied power and gone for micro metering by grouping the consumers. This way, it is easy to know how much power was consumed in one distribution area and the bills realised on that account should be equal to that proportion.

Recently, Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, had a video conference with all the executive engineers of the company across the State and directed them to speed up recovery.

The company has now decided to get tough on consumers, as they are going to disconnect power supply of the defaulted consumers. The ground staff has been directed to ensure five disconnections daily and the same is monitored on a daily basis by senior officers as MSEDCL is in overdrive mode to cut down the losses.

Arrears
Category and Amount (in crores)
Residential 1587.48
Commercial 491.45
HT Industry 533.27
LT Industry 244.42
Powerlooms 940.79
Public water works 520.73
Street Light 3406.80
Agriculture 22780.52
Others 78.64
Railways 1.87
Permenantly disconnected Consumers 7352.37