PANAJI
The government has extended the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for payment of pending electricity dues by another month till February 28.
"Out of Rs 413 crore electricity bills due, still Rs 240 crore bill amount is pending, so these 1,06,578 consumers who still have to pay the dues will be given additional time till February 28," said Power Minister Nilesh Cabral while appealing to electricity consumers to avail the benefit of the scheme.
The OTS scheme which was introduced in December 2020 has been earlier given a one-month extension to recover defaulted bill payments which amounted to over Rs 400 crores some of which were pending for the last 40 years.
The government has waived around Rs 91 crores in delayed payment charges.
The government has also formed special counters at sub-division offices to assist people from villages who want to avail of the scheme.
Meanwhile, the power minister has expressed confidence that all pending bill dues will be recovered till the end of the financial year.
The minister also informed that few customers after availing of the benefit of the OTS scheme have failed to pay the second installment in time and have been given chance to pay 100 per cent of a single installment with a waiver of delayed payment charges.
The electricity minister has warned of strict action against people not paying electricity dues in future.
The temporary disconnection cases will be converted to permanent disconnection cases which will be converted to revenue recovery cases. These cases will be initiated before Mamlatdar and the Electricity department has nominated special revenue recovery officers with powers for this task, informed Cabral.
He informed that more than 15,000 disconnections have been initiated by the Electricity department so far.
