The records of PSPCL revealed that the west zone and border zone have almost similar defaulting amounts of Rs 1,262 crore each for government and non-government defaulters.
The defaulting amount to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) from government and non-government consumers continues to mount despite the state government offering a one-time settlement scheme (OTS) and 300 units of power free to domestic consumers.
In 2023, Punjab has started providing free electricity of up to 300 units to 90 percent of its domestic consumers. Also, the OTS scheme was meant to cover nearly 22 lakh consumers who had not paid their electricity bills worth over Rs 4,400 crore). However, both measures failed to improve the state’s power finances woes.
PSPCL’s defaulting amount has risen to Rs 4,637 crore by the end of February 2024, which includes Rs 2,764 crore from government departments and Rs 1,873 crore from other consumers. At the end of the last financial year (2022-23), the defaulting amount was Rs 4,240 crore.
The records of PSPCL revealed that the west zone and border zone have almost similar defaulting amounts of Rs 1,262 crore each for government and non-government defaulters. This is followed by the south zone with a default of Rs 1,033 crore, the north zone (Rs 649 crore), and the central zone (Rs 371 crore).
The pending bills of various state government departments have increased by more than 13 percent from Rs 2,430 crore last year to Rs 2,764 crore this year. For non-government consumers, the increase is of 3.5 percent from Rs 1,810 crore to Rs 1,873 crore.
The four biggest defaulters are the water supply and sanitation department with Rs 1,085 crore pending, local government (Rs 996 crore), rural development and panchayat (Rs 318 crore), and health department (Rs 150 crore), which cumulatively add up to Rs 2,549 crore, which is 92.2 percent of The other departments with significant dues are the sewerage board (Rs 77 crore), home affairs and jails (Rs 24 crore), and public works (Rs 22 crore).
There are eight circles of PSPCL each with defaulting amount of Rs 150 crore or more by government departments, led by Gurdaspur (Rs 306 crore), Bathinda (Rs 253 crore), Muktsar (Rs 253 crore), Amritsar city (Rs 185 crore) and Mohali (Rs 181 crore). The other three circles in this category are Patiala, Amritsar sub-urban, and Sangrur.
Amongst the non-government defaulters, there are 10 circles with more than Rs 100 crore pending against each.
The four big circles in non-government defaulting amount are Sub-urban Amritsar (Rs 192 crore), Muktsar (Rs 191 crore), Bathinda (Rs162 crore) and Jalandhar (Rs 159 crore) respectively.
“The financial survival of the PSPCL hinges on the clearance of dues of defaulting government departments and timely payment of subsidy. “PSPCL failed to pay in time employees’ salaries and pensions sometime back. The cash-strapped PSPCL is now dependent on long-term and short-term loans,” said VK Gupta, spokesperson All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF).