PANAJI
For the second time in two years the State government launched a One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme for defaulter electricity consumers to pay up their pending arrears which have cumulatively crossed the Rs 423-crore mark.
Launching the scheme on Wednesday, Power Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar said nearly 1.78 lakh consumers across categories have the opportunity to apply under the scheme over the next two months.
The scheme waives off the entire DPC (delayed payment charge) levied for every billing period. Interest on the arrears is also waived but consumers will have to pay the entire principal billed amount, according to the scheme.
The scheme will be open from Wednesday (December 28) to February 27 next year for defaulter consumers in both domestic and commercial category.
Consumers will also have the option of paying up the principal amount of arrears in one go or by monthly installments.
It is open to consumers against whom the department has initiated proceedings in the revenue recovery case (RRC) as also those who have newly begun occupying old premises with arrears against the electricity connection.
Dhavalikar said with the OTS scheme, the government targets to recover at least Rs 190-crore, which amounts to about 40 per-cent of the total outstanding Rs 423 crore.
The decision to re-launch the OTS scheme was recently taken by the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet after it had achieved limited success last year during the tenure of current PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral.
