Discom offers late fee waiver to recover Rs 20cr

GURUGRAM: Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has launched a settlement scheme to waive off late fees and encourage consumers to clear their outstanding power bills.
Around 8,000 defaulting consumers owe the discom up to Rs 20 crore.

Consumers will have two options to pay the bills, in a lump sum or in instalments. In the first category, the late fees will be waived off with immediate effect, and in the second, further late fees will not be charged until the payment of the final instalment when the total late fees will be waived off.

The scheme applies to all domestic and non-domestic consumers. “The principal amount of consumers, who opt for the scheme, shall be recalculated from the date of default to June 30, 2018,” read the order related to the issue.

The order also said that for below poverty line (BPL) consumers, the principal amount accumulating from the past 12 months would be payable and the remaining arrears would be waived off.

“The principal amount, calculated according to the new rule, shall be payable in a lump sum or in 12 monthly or six bi-monthly instalments... In case the consumer makes the payment in a lump sum, the late fees will be waived off with immediate effect. However, in case the consumer chooses to make the payment in instalments, the same shall be frozen and waived off after payment of the last instalment,” said the order.

Officials from the discom told TOI that the scheme would help get back money from defaulters. “A total of at least Rs 20 crore is with the public. We have at least 8,000 consumers who are defaulting on payments. So far, we have recovered only Rs 11 lakh. But our main challenge is in the rural areas. We are starting publicity campaigns in such areas. The scheme came into effect on Oct 1, 2018, but we are now publicising it in the rural areas so that it yields positive results,” said KC Aggarwal, DHBVN superintending engineer, new Gurugram.