PCL to turn govt power connections into prepaid ones on Centre’s advice
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) is gearing up to convert all government and institutional electricity connections into prepaid ones to check the growing commercial and technical losses caused by government departments not footing their bills regularly.
The renewed move comes after the Union power ministry recently advised Uttar Pradesh and other states to convert all institutional and government power connections to prepaid ones as already done in Bihar, people familiar with the matter in the UPPCL said.
“During the state power ministers’ conference in Shimla last month, many states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Telangana cited government dues as one of the reasons for high aggregate commercial and technical (AT&C) losses,” they said.
“After that, the union power minister asked these states to emulate Bihar by installing prepaid meters at all the government offices, buildings and colonies to overcome the problem to some extent,” they added.
Last year too, the UPPCL had chalked out a plan to start installing prepaid meters in government and institutional buildings, deciding to begin with Lucknow and Ghaziabad in the first phase. The plan, however, remained unimplemented.
“Now, we will chalk out a fresh plan in light of the Centre’s
advice,” said a UPPCL official.
“Installing prepaid meters appears to be the only practical solution to the problem of government departments not paying their energy bills,” he added.
People familiar with the matter said the Centre at the same conference made it clear to states that reducing AT&C losses to 15% by March 2019 was of paramount importance and asked UP and similar other states having losses above 15 % to submit a roadmap for loss reduction, failing which it might put on hold financial assistance for various ongoing schemes.
The current AT&C losses in UP are, however, around 37% which is not only one of the highest, but also above the national average of 23%.
The total outstanding dues against the various government departments are estimated to be close to Rs 10,000 crore with their bill payment being as low as 51% against 87 % by the private consumers.
The corporation believes that installation of prepaid meters in government offices, residential complexes, colonies and institutions such as schools and colleges might help it reduce the commercial losses significantly.
“Once prepaid meters are installed, consumers will have to recharge their meters to use electricity once the balance runs out. This will rid the department of the rigmarole of raising bills and then running after government departments to realize the same because the department will get money in advance,” the official explained.