MSEDCL powers a punch, disconnects 11k defaulters

Nagpur: State discom has started cracking down on consumers who don’t pay their power bills on time. In last one month, it has disconnected 11,000 consumers in Nagpur and Wardha districts who had not paid up despite repeated reminders. The drive will continue till all the defaulters pay up.
A source in the company said that around 1.62 lakh consumers having arrears of over Rs300 owe about Rs81 crore to MSEDCL. They had not paid their bills since last two months. “Since September, our billing has become centralized and is monitored by the head office. The top officials are paying special attention to defaulters,” he added.

According to the official, the company can no longer be indulgent towards defaulters. “Our financial condition is pretty bad. We need money for purchasing power, paying salaries, paying instalments of loans taken for infrastructure projects in addition to operation and maintenance expenditure. Regional director Bhalchandra Khandait has therefore set a target of 100% collection of bills,” he said.

“So far, we have recovered Rs15.5 crore from about 46,000 consumers from the total 1.62 lakh. We have temporarily disconnected 7,865 consumers and permanently disconnected 3,153 consumers. Work is going on war footing to disconnect the remaining defaulters,” said the official.

MSEDCL is first concentrating on consumers who owe more than Rs5,000 to the company. Once these consumers are dealt with, those owing lesser amounts will be targeted.

The official said that consumers no longer needed to queue up at bill collection centres to pay power bills. They can pay through MSEDCL website www.mahadiscom.in and the discom’s mobile application. In case they want to pay at the collection centres, they need not show a physical copy of the bill. The SMS about the bill amount received on the registered mobile number will suffice. They can pay their bills early and get prompt payment discount.