Four escoms have pending bills of Rs 12,382 crore; govt departments top defaulters

Four out of the five electricity supply companies (escoms) have to recover over Rs 12,382.3 crore dues, of which the government and its various departments are the highest defaulters.

While senior officials claim that the huge dues is not directly hampering their day-to-day work, they, however, concede that it is affecting their account books, timely payment of arrears, revised DA and is compounding the interest on the loans escoms have borrowed from banks.

With Rs 5,246.64 crore dues, Bescom had the highest outstanding bills at the end of the 2022-23 financial year. However, this is just dues that it has to collect from government departments such as rural local bodies (Rs 3,784.87 crore), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Rs 640.17 crore), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Rs 468.25 crore) and others. The officials could not provide details regarding pending dues from private entities such as industries, hospitals and individual consumers.

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Hescom has to recover pending arrears of Rs 3,666.35 crore from both government and private entities. The Hubballi-based electricity supply company has to recover Rs 765.56 crore from the government for supplying power for their various subsidy schemes.

Hescom has to recover Rs 1340.49 crore from the government for supplying electricity to irrigation pump set below 10 HP and another Rs 139.17 crore from pump set owners above 10 HP. RDPR department has to repay Rs 554.46 crore and Water Supply department has to repay Rs 500 crore to Hescom. Hukkeri Society, which distributes power in selected parts of Belagavi from the electricity supplied by Hescom has to pay the mother company Rs 343.36 crore.

Of the total Rs 2,065.81 crore that Gescom has to recover, the government departments have to pay Rs 1,715 crore, while the remaining Rs 350 crore is from private entities. Mescom has the least amount to recover - Rs 1,203.5 crore from both government and private agencies.

Chamundeshwari electricity supply company (Chescom) Managing Director N Shreedhar refused to provide details as it could "embarrass" the government during the legislature session.

Why special treatment?

A S Kulkarni, an electricity consumers’ rights activist, questions the preferential treatment for the government and certain influential private entities by the escoms.

“For the power supplying company, both government departments and individuals are the same: consumers. The government has a higher responsibility to set an example by clearing the dues to escoms on time, else power supply to their offices should also be cut as they do it for individual houses,” he said.

Sources in escoms confirmed to DH that the mounting debts are affecting the modernisation of the power supply network and increasing interest being paid to banks for loans taken for various infrastructures.

Speaking to DH, Hescom M D Mohammad Roshan said: “Recovery of debts will certainly reduce our financial losses and gives a breather to manage the flow of liquid cash. At present the debts are not affecting our operation or payment of salaries to human resources.” He said last financial year they had received full payment from the government for various subsidised schemes.

Gaurav Gupta, Energy Department Additional Chief Secretary, says the majority of the dues are from rural areas.

“The gram panchayats, rural local bodies and others have to clear the power bills towards streetlights and water supply,” he said and added that government is serious about recovering the dues from all the government departments.