POWER SECTOR: Govt deptt owe whopping Rs 605 crore to PDD

POWER SECTOR: Govt deptt owe whopping Rs 605 crore to PDD

Yash Khajuria 

12/9/2011 10:07:29 PM

JAMMU, Dec 9: At a time when Government is making tall claims of reforming the power sector in the state and achieve revenue targets, different government departments still owe whopping Rs 605 crore to the Power  Development Department (PDD). 

Officials said that this is the main hindrance in way of the Department to achieve its revenue targets. Sources said that most of the Government offices are using the electricity with impunity and despite repeated notices they have not responded to them. 

Sources said that government employees alone owe nearly Rs 28 crore to the department, putting question mark on the measures taken by the Omar Abdullah led government on reforming the electricity sector. It is pertinent to mention here that of the budget of Rs 5000 crore for the state, power sector consumes about Rs 2400 crore annually, while the revenue collection is just Rs 600-800 crore.

“Speeches are ok, but no sincere steps are being taken by the PDD to recover the money from the defaulters. It will take years before the pending arrears are cleared by the government”, said a senior officer from the PDD on condition of anonymity. 

When contacted, PDD Chief Engineer Mohammad Qasim said, “We have taken steps for recovery but it will take time. These are pending for last many years and departments are also cooperating”. 

He said that they have took up the matter with the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah who have assured that he will ensure that arrears are cleared. 

Every year PDD has the target of nearly Rs 1500 crore as revenue, but they are able to recover just Rs 600 to Rs 800 crore annually, due to which state had to face the wrath of the Union Power Ministry, which has warned the J&K from time to time, to improve its revenue collection. 

"While people are being made to shell out fees even using harsh measures, no effort is being made to recover dues from the departments who have emerged as major defaulters", said a official. 

It is pertinent to mention here that Power sector is a major headache for the J&K, while its use is increasing every year, but state had to divert crores to keep the power supply stable. Another worry is the higher Transmission and Distribution losses, which has reached nearly 72 per cent from 40 per cent just five years ago. 

Government has recently said that they intend to install 1200 capacitors to keep check on the losses on the advice of experts committee, but so far the project has also not helped much to check the losses. 

For providing uninterrupted power supply state requires nearly 2500 MWs of power at present. The restricted demand of power was nearly 700 MW for Jammu region and 800 MW for Kashmir region, which comes out at 1500 MW, but revenue recovery is falling every year. 

As per the data industry sector was to pay Rs 55.01 crore, while domestic sector Rs 216.14 crore and the agriculture sector owed Rs 147.81 crore for electricity consumed.