impetus to power sector
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has spelt the revival mantra for the three power companies in the State and asked them to adopt efficient management.
Holding a review meeting with top officials of the APDCL (Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd), APGCL (Assam Power Generation Company Ltd) and AEGCL (Assam Electricity Grid Corporation Ltd) here on Sunday, the Chief Minister asked them to deal with power theft and payment default with an iron hand.
Complaints against power theft in the State are lodged only in a few police stations now. However, doing away with this age-old practice, the Chief Minister asked the three companies to lodge such complaints in all respective police stations for speedy and timely investigation.
To do away with the problem of pending huge power bills in various departments of the State Government, the Chief Minister said that separate budgetary allocations will be made to the departments to clear their huge power dues.
In the event of government employees defaulting power bills of their domestic consumption, the Chief Minister said, "In such cases, the amount can be deducted directly from the employees' salaries."
The Chief Minister asked the three companies to follow the Gujarat model that transformed the power deficit State into a power surplus one.
Assam is a power-deficit State as its power generation is very limited. The bulk of the power has to be purchased from other sources costing a whopping Rs 6 per unit. This rate is higher than the rates of other States, for various reasons. The total daily installed capacity of the power plants under the APGCL is 379 MW. However, they together generate only 250 MW daily.
One of the reasons for loss-making by the power sector in Assam when compared to Gujarat and other States is – low-transmission line (around 4 lakh km) is more than the high transmission line (around 1 lakh km). The transmission loss is more in low transmission line than in high transmission line. The ratio between the low transmission line and the high transmission line should have been 1:1. The transmission and distribution (T&D) loss in the State was 21.97 per cent in 2018-19.
More domestic consumers than commercial and industrial consumers in the State is the other reason behind poor revenue generation by the power sector. In fiscal 2018-19 power consumed in the industrial sector was 1661 million units (MU), commercial consumption was 1097 MU and in the agriculture sector, it was only 28 MU. However, power consumption in the domestic sector in that fiscal was 3,478 MU.
A section of small industries in the State is infamous for power theft. A few of them were caught action was taken against them.
One of the major reasons for loss is the power supply to various government departments that have regular dues amounting to Rs 100-150 crore. However, to solve this problem, the Chief Minister asked the power sector to take necessary steps to recover unpaid power bills of government offices at the earliest while directing for making a report with the names, professions etc of the defaulters.
The meeting also decided to convert the loan amount given to the three power companies by the State Government into partnership shares. This will make the government receive dividends yearly from the three companies.