the goan I network
PANAJI
Upset with a report that the eight-long-month drive the electricity department to recover pending dues from a government department and a PSU was merely a publicity stunt and did not effectively improve the cash book, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Tuesday justified it saying the reduced aggregate outstanding dues will help bargain with the JERC to reduce tariffs.
Addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat, Cabral said, reducing the net outstanding power dues helps the department to bargain with the Joint Electricity Regulatory Authority (JERC) to make a case for reducing power tariffs.
“The exercise has a lot of sense. If we adjust the (recovery dues) amount of electricity department, the outstanding dues become zero. As the tariff depends on the outstanding dues, we have to adjust outstanding... If we have high outstanding, then tariff also increases”, said Cabral.
The Goan had in its October 18 edition published a report quoting officials that the widely publicised drive to recover arrears of electricity bills from government departments and other State-owned agencies and local bodies could well be just a publicity stunt and may not impact the bottom lines of the nearly Rs 300 crore per year loss-making utility.
