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| PDD to bear over Rs 80 cr new losses | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 21: The Power Department is facing a difficult situation yet again as the recently announced fee waiver scheme for the industrial units would add to its losses, sources told Early Times.
They said the waiver scheme is likely to push the PDD losses to the tune of over Rs 80 crore.
It may be recalled that on September 19 this year the J&K administration had announced economic package of Rs 1350 crore for UT’s struggling business community. In the economic package, government had announced to provide a discount of 50 percent in water and electricity bills for a year on “fixed demand charges for industrial and commercial consumers.”
The government’s announcement to waive of the fixed charges by 50% was intended to cover small and medium enterprises in tourism industry but according to officials, the waiver given by government at the cost of Power Department’s exchequer. “Already the Power Department is facing criticism for its failure to plug in the Transmission and Distribution losses. Now the latest waiver scheme has put the extra burden of Rs 80 crore on the Department,” said an official.
He said, “Erstwhile regimes waiving of the electricity bills of the elected representatives in the past also caused a huge loss to the Power Department. On many occasions former governments also waived off the electricity charges by announcing general amnesty to the defaulters. The department in the past has paid a heavy price for the decisions which were taken to appease someone or another.”
He said that department has been purchasing electricity at Rs. 4.50 per unit but is selling it to the customers at Rs. 2.80 per unit.
The gap in purchase and sale is one of the cardinal reasons for losses in the sector and now the waiver of 50 % on fixed charges is yet another blow. “The government should give additional funds to the Power Department to overcome the losses,” he added. |
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