The Times of India:Thursday, February 09, 2012.
MUMBAI: Ever faced a power cut because you failed to pay the electric bill on time? The answer is obvious for the common man. But government departments, which owe crores to the city's power supplying agency, continue to enjoy free power.
The city's public hospitals, MLA hostels and courts emerged as the largest defaulters. Put together, hundreds of public offices owe the BEST Rs 31 crore. But it continues to supply power to the powerful Mantralaya, Arthur Road Jail and MMRDA, all of which have been using electricity worth millions without paying a penny for it.
Data procured by RTI activist Chetan Kothari found that hospitals owe the BEST the most-Rs 4.68 crore, followed by the various offices of the public works department (PWD)-Rs 3.67 crore and the city's courts which have an outstanding bill of Rs 1.99 crore.
The data pertains to the current outstanding amount of various agencies till November 2011. We selected some of the outstanding amounts which have crossed the Rs 10-lakh mark. If calculated, smaller amounts in an unending list of pending dues, the outstanding amounts given above may shoot up further.
Kothari said the BEST should not have two sets of rules, one for the general public and another for government offices. "The number of unpaid bills has piled up over the years precisely because the BEST has been so callous about their recovery drive," he added.
On its part, the BEST isn't worried about these arrears. Reason: it's all within the large syndicate called the government. In fact, the BEST has come up with its own ingenuous mechanism of striking out the government arrears. Sources said they do an internal adjustment in their account books about the pending amounts within government establishments. "In return for the arrears, we have not paid transport tax to the government, which is about Rs 50 crore. It's an adjustment within the government departments," said a senior official.
BEST general manager Omprakash Gupta also endorsed the fact that these pending amounts and subsidies to hospitals are adjusted among the government departments. "It's understood that a government hospital carrying out a surgery at just Rs 200 is in public interest; services like these need subsidies," he said when asked about the largest pending dues with hospitals.
But IIT-Bombay's professor Girish Kumar, from the electrical engineering department, termed such an arrangement vicious. He wondered why the government was not paying its electricity dues. "More surprisingly, why is the BEST is sitting tight? Which undertaking would like to lose over Rs 31 crore?" he asked.
Economists said that such large payment defaults lead an undertaking to the path of lossmaking, before they are eventually shut down.
Senior power expert Ashok Pendse said these adjustments are never shown in the account books and against this deficit, the money is borrowed from different institutions. "Consumers have to pay the interest of these amounts. There are incidents when the government instead of paying subsidy to MSEDCL for agriculture and to power loom consumers, hiked state electricity duty to adjust the accounts. This affects power purchase, supply services and ultimately leads to either high tariff or load-shedding," he said.
Surendra Kumar, IG prison and in-charge of Arthur Road Jail, said there are internal disputes about the areas and their billing which has resulted in accumulation. "But we will surely look into it and resolve the issue," said Kumar when asked why the jail has not paid the dues.
PWD authorities, who are supposed to look after payment of power bills for the MLA hostel and Mantralaya, were not reachable for comments.
The city's public hospitals, MLA hostels and courts emerged as the largest defaulters. Put together, hundreds of public offices owe the BEST Rs 31 crore. But it continues to supply power to the powerful Mantralaya, Arthur Road Jail and MMRDA, all of which have been using electricity worth millions without paying a penny for it.
Data procured by RTI activist Chetan Kothari found that hospitals owe the BEST the most-Rs 4.68 crore, followed by the various offices of the public works department (PWD)-Rs 3.67 crore and the city's courts which have an outstanding bill of Rs 1.99 crore.
The data pertains to the current outstanding amount of various agencies till November 2011. We selected some of the outstanding amounts which have crossed the Rs 10-lakh mark. If calculated, smaller amounts in an unending list of pending dues, the outstanding amounts given above may shoot up further.
Kothari said the BEST should not have two sets of rules, one for the general public and another for government offices. "The number of unpaid bills has piled up over the years precisely because the BEST has been so callous about their recovery drive," he added.
On its part, the BEST isn't worried about these arrears. Reason: it's all within the large syndicate called the government. In fact, the BEST has come up with its own ingenuous mechanism of striking out the government arrears. Sources said they do an internal adjustment in their account books about the pending amounts within government establishments. "In return for the arrears, we have not paid transport tax to the government, which is about Rs 50 crore. It's an adjustment within the government departments," said a senior official.
BEST general manager Omprakash Gupta also endorsed the fact that these pending amounts and subsidies to hospitals are adjusted among the government departments. "It's understood that a government hospital carrying out a surgery at just Rs 200 is in public interest; services like these need subsidies," he said when asked about the largest pending dues with hospitals.
But IIT-Bombay's professor Girish Kumar, from the electrical engineering department, termed such an arrangement vicious. He wondered why the government was not paying its electricity dues. "More surprisingly, why is the BEST is sitting tight? Which undertaking would like to lose over Rs 31 crore?" he asked.
Economists said that such large payment defaults lead an undertaking to the path of lossmaking, before they are eventually shut down.
Senior power expert Ashok Pendse said these adjustments are never shown in the account books and against this deficit, the money is borrowed from different institutions. "Consumers have to pay the interest of these amounts. There are incidents when the government instead of paying subsidy to MSEDCL for agriculture and to power loom consumers, hiked state electricity duty to adjust the accounts. This affects power purchase, supply services and ultimately leads to either high tariff or load-shedding," he said.
Surendra Kumar, IG prison and in-charge of Arthur Road Jail, said there are internal disputes about the areas and their billing which has resulted in accumulation. "But we will surely look into it and resolve the issue," said Kumar when asked why the jail has not paid the dues.
PWD authorities, who are supposed to look after payment of power bills for the MLA hostel and Mantralaya, were not reachable for comments.
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