Farmers have been accused of being defaulters when it comes to paying electricity bills, but the Maharashtra government owes Rs 3,643 crore as arrears to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) in pending electricity bills. There are municipal corporations, gram panchayats, zilla parishads, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) — all the government bodies have not paid electricity bills till June 2016. However, no strong action has been taken against them.
As per the data sought from the energy department, Rs 3,643.38 crore is pending with various government bodies to be paid for electricity usage. “The main defaulters of the public water works category include 12 A class municipalities (Rs 30 crore), 32 B class municipalities (Rs 56 crore), 68 C class municipalities (Rs 108 crore), 19 gram panchayats (Rs 602 crore), 17 Jeevan Pradhikaran (Rs 29 crore), 28 municipal corporations (Rs 150 crore), 70 zilla parishads (Rs 100 crore), 9 MIDC (Rs 10 crore), Public Sector – Central government (Rs 19 crore), Public Sector — state government ('17 crore), Railways ('10 crore) and 167 other government bodies ('240 crore). The total figure stands at Rs 1,338.68 crore,” the document revealed.
In the category of street lights, “A class municipalities (Rs 81 crore), B class municipalities (Rs 59 crore), C class municipalities (Rs 59 crore), gram panchayats (Rs 1,606 crore), Jeevan Pradhikaran (Rs 5 crore), municipal corporations (Rs 44 crore), zilla parishads (Rs 187 crore), MIDC (Rs 15 crore), Cidco (Rs 29 crore), Public Sector – Central Government (Rs 109 crore), Public Sector- states government (Rs 59 crore) and other government bodies (Rs 453 crore). So, the total figure is Rs 2,248.23 crore of arrears for street lights.”
Energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule did not respond to queries as to whether any action had been taken against the defaulters. An official from the energy department confirmed that as per the general process, the MSEDCL sends notices to all government bodies that are defaulters and also levies fines. “Electricity is also cut in certain cases. But some government bodies are already suffering financial losses and hence they expressed their helplessness to repay the pending bills,” the official said.
