Telangana govt departments owe record Rs 28,861 crores in unpaid power bills

Hyderabad: The biggest defaulters of electricity bills in Telangana are the State government offices themselves. The arrears of the government departments total Rs 28,861 crores. This is a considerable increase from the arrears recorded during the formation of Telangana State which were Rs 1,268 crores.

Why are government departments not paying?

A breakdown of the top defaulters in government departments and projects draws a clearer picture of how the power and electricity department is being burdened.

The arrears of the prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project amount to Rs 14,172 crores. The other projects built to provide drinking water supply like Mission Bhagiratha have not paid Rs 3,559 crores.

The pending amount for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (HMWS&SB) is Rs 3,932 crores. Other municipalities in the state need to give Rs 486 crores; the home department owes Rs 28 crores; the health and family welfare department has to pay Rs 48 crores as dues and other departments owe Rs 77 crores to the electricity government. The electricity costs incurred after implementing the project for providing street lighting are also pending.

Bills from previous years add up

The list of defaulters continues with the Central departments owing the State government Rs 721 crores. The bills sent to the Panchayat Raj are also pending.

Apart from the pending dues from this year, some government departments also have to pay the interest rate and the charges carried over from the previous years to the next. These amounts in total have led to a large corpus which is now bleeding the power distribution companies.

People are paying bills but not the government

While people of the state have been paying their electricity dues, non-payment of bills by the government offices has put a huge burden on the state. No proper reason is being given by the officers for why these departments have not paid their bills.

Loss to power companies

The arrears are weakening the power distribution companies who have reported to the government that the North/South Telangana Power Distribution Corporation (TSNPDCL/TSSPDCL) have collectively incurred huge losses of Rs 50,275 crores along with the dues of the government.

If the State government pays these dues, the losses of these power companies will reduce considerably, up to Rs 9,620 crores. The new government has promised to pay the arrears in instalments in the next five years.

Curious case of Prabhakar Rao

D Prabhakar Rao, who was the chairman and managing director (MD) of Transmission Corporation of Telangana Limited (TSTRANSCO), quit before the new Congress government took oath in office.

Rao was credited for improving the generation, transmission and distribution of power in Telangana and lauded for overcoming the power crisis in the state.

But his resignation before the formation of the new government has raised doubts about what is it that he was not willing to disclose about the arrears. According to sources, he told the new government that he had done his duty by reminding the departments of their pending payments.

New appointments in power sector

On Thursday, in a major overhaul of the bureaucratic setup, the State government appointed Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi as the secretary to the energy department, with additional charge as chairman and MD of (TSTRANSCO) and Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO). Earlier, Rizvi had a short stint in a power distribution company.