Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 10: The government is likely to grant amnesty to domestic and commercial electricity defaulters in the state to clear the dues.
At the same time, the Power Development Department has proposed to purchase power for Rs 7325.13 crore in 2020-2021 to provided 24-hour power supply to the consumers.
A senior PDD official said that state's power liabilities have reached to over Rs 4000 crore. "The liabilities are increasing with each passing day," he said.
An official of the Power Development Department, said that government has sought details about electricity arrears of domestic and commercial establishments in the state. "It has been decided to grant amnesty to power defaulters," the PDD official, said. He said it would be an opportunity for the domestic and commercial consumers to avail the benefit under the amnesty and clear their pending electricity bills.
"100 percent power tariff may be waived-off to defunct industrial units," the official said. "While, defaulters of domestic and hoteliers category may have to pay less than 70 percent arrears to the government," he said.
The aim of the amnesty is to recover pending tariff by the end of the current fiscal.
An official at the Finance Department said that government may announce the amnesty to power defaulters by the end of this year.
"How much one can avail the benefit will be known once the order is issued," the official added.
Government has said in the last assembly that government departments and commercial establishments owe a whopping Rs 19557 crores as liability to the power department. The PDD officials said that state was already facing a huge burden of power purchase. "Recovering of power tariff would help to reduce revenue generation gap," they said.
For the last one decade, over Rs 30,000 crore has been spent on power purchase by the state government. Official figures reveal that state government spent Rs 1,355 crore on power purchase in 2006-2007, Rs 1750 crore in 2007-08, and Rs 2034 in 2008-09.
During 2015-16, Rs around 4800 crore was spent on power purchase by the state. While the power development department has projected that it would purchase power from Rs 5,058.42 in the current fiscal. At the same time, there has been around 50 percent revenue generation gap over the years.
The centre in December last year announced an allocation of additional power of 792 MW for Jammu and Kashmir in view of higher demand in winters in the state. However, people say that there has been no improvement in power supply in the valley. |
