Financial shock to Tangedco: Rs 300 crore dues from civic bodies

The local bodies draw power for the street lights in their areas of governance, besides consumption of electricity for their offices and schools. Usually, power supply would be cut off for defaulters when the period of non-payment exceeded 20 days. But, since local bodies themselves are serving the public, power supply would not be severed for 60 days.

But, most of the local bodies owe several months of current consumption charges to the Tangedco and the dues had mounted to about Rs 300 crore on January 1 this year. The mounting electricity bills of civic bodies are one of the reasons for the financial woes of the board.

According to Tangedco officials, at least 5,000 of the rural local bodies have failed to pay the current bills for a long time and the union panchayats alone must pay about Rs 170 crore.

When it comes to corporations, most of them including Chennai had defaulted and the total dues that should be paid by the 12 corporations come to Rs 109 crore. Besides, the municipalities owe Tangedco Rs 55 crore and town panchayats have the lowest pending bills with Rs 4 crore.

Commenting on the issue, Electricity Minister P Thangamani said, “We cannot take stringent action since any such move will impact the functioning of the local bodies and ultimately, the public will be affected. But, we have held negotiations with the municipal administration department and requested them to clear the electricity dues as early as possible. Even if they could not clear the entire dues, we have asked them to pay the amount in a gradual manner,” he said.