More power dues recovered this year in Pondy: Kamalakannan

Talking to media after launching the facility to pay power tariff online, Kamalakannan said the collection, which has not crossed Rs 1200 crore until last year, came to Rs 1353 crorethis year.

Eight percent of this is due to the power tariff hike and five percent due to the efforts taken by the Lt.Governor, Chief Minister, Minister and other officials, he added.

The power tariff arrears from private parties, which was Rs 140 crore last year, came down to Rs 81.89 crore. A sum of Rs 388.36 crore is pending as power dues from government departments, local bodies and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU), the Minister said.

The Minister, who said that the power dues of farmers will not be waived, added that free power is being provided to farmers from 2017-18 and since then, the Agriculture Department provided Rs 2 crore to the Electricity department. Before providing further supply to farmers, they were demanded to pay their dues. However, they are not ready for this and are demanding firmly to waive their dues which will not be possible, he added.

Hereafter, the Junior Engineers, Assistant Engineers and others will have to shoulder responsibility in case of any arrears of power tariff from an individual consumer, Kamalakannan said and added that steps are being taken to collect the pending dues.

Kamalakannan said that from 2008, the power tariff in the Union Territory is being fixed by the Electricity Regulatory Authority of India after calculating the power purchasing price, power theft and power loss during transmission. The Chief Minister had assured of reducing the power tariff following a complaint that a multi-fold hike was there this time. He said that the power tariff would be reduced accordingly if the government provides funding to the department for the same. The Minister also said that steps are being taken to fill up the 70 vacancies for the Junior Engineer post in the Electricity department, 40 of which would be filled by direct recruitment and 30 by promotion.