BY A GT REPORTER
PANJIM: At the receiving end of the opposition onslaught, Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira is planning to launch 'Spot Billing' for domestic electricity consumers on a trial basis in some parts of the state. If successful, this facility will be extended to the entire state. This measure is aimed at overcoming the delay in billing of domestic consumers of electricity. Interestingly, this step was introduced in parts of Panjim and was outsourced to a private agency. The latter however abandoned it which put paid to this system. In yet another step to erase the mounting burden of arrears, the state Power Ministry is expected to move the Chief Minister for writing off the MSEB arrears credited to the state Power Ministry's account.
The bone of contention of consumers of domestic power, as articulated by the opposition BJP in the House yesterday, was the non-receipt of electricity bills on time every month. This, the BJP felt, had a snowballing effect on the payment capacity of the consumers when bills of accumulated amount were sent to them in about two to three months. Partly, this anomaly was also responsible for mounting arrears, felt the BJP.
Related issues such as increase the ceiling of the One Time Settlement Scheme(OTS) beneficial to consumers, shortage of meter readers and their reluctance to move in the hinterland, absolving the electricity staff of election duties also came to light and were discussed by the House.
It was left to the BJP -- opposition leader Manohar Parrikar, Shiroda MLA Mahadev Naik -- and former Finance Minister Dayanand Narvekar to grill Power Minister on the aforesaid issues. While Naik raised the issue pertaining to the mounting arrears and wanted to know the Power Department measures to recover the same, he pinned the problem on the reluctance of meter readers to move to the hinterland.
Opposition leader wanted the ceiling of OTS scheme to be raised from the prevailing Rs 20,000 for benefiting domestic consumers. Narvekar was livid over the involvement of electricity department staff in election duty. The common thread binding the arguments of Parrikar, Naik and Narvekar was the non-receipt of electricity bills by domestic consumers on time.
While the Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira debunked the arguments pertaining to the reluctance of meter readers to move to the hinterland for billing, he said 'Spot Billing' would solve the problem to a large extent. " We are trying to introduce Spot Billing and outsource the same to an agency which will issue bills every month. If successful, then we will introduce this system all over the state," announced the Power Minister.
The latter also appeared to be open to the idea of increasing the ceiling of OTS scheme from upwards of Rs 20,000 while also claiming that his Ministry has raised it from the previous Rs 10,000 to the present Rs 20,000. A part of the mounting arrears, he said was a result of the locked house of domestic consumers and some industries as well. The opposition remained firm on its demand for the issue of electricity bills to domestic consumers at the end of every month.
