The electricity bills that are unpaid in Bastar division itself have become astronomical, and consumers in seven districts total more than 1.77 billion rupees.
Government offices are again the most significant consumer of all of these dues. In October, the electricity company was busy carrying out maintenance activities in its substations, feeders, and power lines, with employees trying to attend fuse calls from the consumers in order to ensure a good power supply during the Diwali festival.
In this environment, with much emphasis on maintenance, a team was set to deal with bill collection processes. The team was sent to the defaulters’ homes and their shops all day with the hope of recovering the money. However, the burden of the maintenance activities affected the speed of the recovery drive.
Currently, the total unpaid sum from the consumer side is 1.77 billion rupees, of which government offices owe 1.16 billion rupees, while the rest of the private consumers owe 617 million rupees. S.K. Thakur, Executive Director of the organization, said that while engineers were paying more attention to the collection of bills, they were also involved in maintenance practices.
He stressed that collection is a normal exercise for the company in that it sends notices to the defaulters and follows it up with demands. The collection drive was affected a little by the Diwali maintenance work done a week and a half back. Also, the team is now focusing on getting the desired amount of collection as targeted for the last month.
Thakur also explained that the company is keen on ensuring that there is a balance between the maintenance and the billing to ensure that people are able to pay their bills so that there is disbursement of power in the region. The team envisages increasing its activity and focusing on government organizations, in particular, to reduce receivables to a minimum.
These measures are needed especially to balance the financial activities of the electricity board and avoid interruptions of unbearable services. The company continues to expect that it will meet set collection amounts in the succeeding months, more so with the renewed efforts to collect debt in Bastar.
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