Nearly 15L defaulters owe over Rs 10k cr to DVVNL

AGRA: More than 14.95 lakh defaulters owe a whopping Rs 10,583 crore to cash-strapped Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (DVVNL), according to data obtained from the discom.
After last week’s meeting with state energy minister Shrikant Sharma, the seven discoms of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), including the DVVNL, decided to kickstart a two-month campaign to reduce the cash gap and recover dues from the defaulters.

According to data with TOI, in 39 urban areas of 21 districts covered by DVVNL, 89,745 defaulters with power connection owe Rs 410 crore to the discom, while those without a connection stole power worth Rs 537 crore.

The situation was grave in rural areas, where more than 1.23 lakh farmers with power connections owe Rs 983 crore to DVVNL, while 12,23,983 farmers without connections freely used electricity for agricultural purposes and to power their houses. In total, dues worth Rs 9,636 crore was pending with defaulters in rural areas.

Speaking with TOI, DVVNL’s director, commercial department, D K Singh said, “It’s a Herculean task as well as a lengthy process to recover dues from defaulters, especially those who are without a power connection or are in rural areas. Therefore, from November 1 to December 31, we are going to target 1,63,968 defaulters of both urban and rural areas whose dues have mounted above Rs 10,000 and have a power connection.”

According to DVVNL, Rs 885 crore will be recovered from 1,54,647 customers with less than 5kw connection while Rs 443 crore will be charged from 9,321 consumers with more than 5Kw connection. This amounts to 12.54% of the over Rs 10,000 crore owed by defaulters to the discom.

Singh added, “First, we will serve a notice to the defaulters to pay the amount in a given period of time. If they fail, we will lodge an FIR against each one of them.”

Another data of UPPCL revealed, that across the entire state (city limits), there are 6.15 lakh defaulters who have run up bills above Rs 10,000. In rural areas, the seven discoms have managed to recover dues from only 33.60 lakh of the 1.63 crore defaulters with power connections.