Cental govt offices to pay in advance for energy use

NEW DELHI: The government has allowed central ministries and entities under their control to pay for energy consumption in advance without seeking bank guarantees from power distribution companies (discoms) in a significant step to promote smart pre-paid meters, two officials said.

The decision is in sync with the ₹3.05 lakh crore “revamped reforms-based result-linked power distribution sector scheme” that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget on February 1, they said requesting anonymity.

This assumes significance given that outstanding dues of government departments accounted for ₹48,664 crore at the end of 2020-21 financial year.

Advance payment of electricity bills is central to smart prepaid meters, a key component of power distribution reforms, one official said.

“As the government and its agencies are major power consumers, it wants to set an example. But existing rules prohibited them from making advance payments for goods and services. Thus, it has been decided to explicitly exempt government offices from the (existing) requirement of taking bank guarantees (BGS) for advance payment of electricity bills,” he said. India is launching the world’s largest electricity smart metering programme to replace 250 million conventional metres one of the measures to reduce the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses from 21.83% in 2019-20 to 12-15%, and close the gap between the average cost of supply and average revenue per unit from 28 paise in 2019-20 to zero by 2024-25, a second official said.