Bhubaneswar: Hardening its stance on electricity dues pending against consumers and government departments, the Central Electricity Service Utility (Cesu) Tuesday warned its consumers of snapping power, if they fail to clear pending dues by January 15, next year.
Briefing media persons here, Cesu Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arun Bothra said, “SMSes will be sent to consumers to clear their pending bills by January 15, 2020, failing which power supply to their homes/offices/business establishments will be disconnected,” said Bothra. Cesu will intensify its drive from January 16 to disconnect power connections of those who have failed to clear the dues, said Bothra.
The cumulative pending electricity dues of regular consumers have touched Rs 1,971 crore, he said, adding over 7 lakh consumers have not paid their electricity bills.
“Outstanding bills to the tune of Rs 1,023 crore are pending with domestic consumers out of which 1.04 lakh consumers are yet to pay Rs 394 crore for more than two years. Out of the total arrears, there are problems in the collection of Rs 209 crore of which Rs 108 crore relates to industrial units as the matter is sub-judice,” he said.
Dues over Rs 50,000 each amounting to Rs 691 crore are pending with 58,548 consumers, the CEO said.
Stating that Cesu’s financial condition is not encouraging, he said the power distribution company is keen to provide uninterrupted power to its consumers for which it needs to upgrade the infrastructure. “Unless we have money, we cannot upgrade the infrastructure,” he added.
