SRINAGAR: Less than 50 percent of electricity tariff defaulters have availed the amnesty scheme of the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Official figures reveal that of the total 1.5 lakh defaulters, only 45,000 consumers have turned up and cleared their outstanding dues.
“We had announced an amnesty scheme for defaulters. But It did not evoke the response that should have been there. Only 40 to 45000 consumers came forward and cleared their dues,” Javed Yousuf Dar, Chief Engineer, KPDCL, told The Kashmir Monitor.
Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to disconnect the electricity of the defaulters and levy a monthly surcharge on the outstanding dues. “There will be disconnections of those who will not pay,” he said.
Official figures reveal that Jammu and Kashmir spent Rs 6317 crore on power purchases in 2020-21. In 2019-20, Rs 6072 crore were spent on power bills. In 2018-19, power worth Rs 6058 crore was purchased in Jammu and Kashmir. The government only realized revenue of Rs 2600 crore from consumers.
In 2021-22, the local power generation was 14721.5221 lakh units. In 2020-21, the generation was 51257.62 lakh units. Likewise, the local generation in 2019-20 was 54532.034 lakh units
“We have nine lakh domestic consumers in the valley,” said Dar.
KPDCL is currently supplying 1750 MW of power to consumers in the valley. The peak electricity demand in Kashmir is more than 2400 MW. However, the KPDCL is using load shedding to balance the gap between demand and supply.
Electricity consumption shoots up in winter prompting the authorities to resort to load shedding. Consumption increases after the temperature drops in the valley.
“We continue to provide 1750 MW of power to consumers. There is no significant decrease in power consumption,” said Dar.
Meanwhile, the government has started revising the electricity load agreement of consumers using energy-guzzling appliances including heaters and boilers.
The government has entrusted assistant executive engineers to review the electricity load in their jurisdictions and accordingly revise a load of those consumers using energy-guzzling appliances. So far, the load agreement of 2.5 lakh consumers has been revised.
