Thousands of domestic electricity consumers yet to clear pending dues of over two years, say Officials

Losses in Kashmir region have reduced by nearly 10 percent after installation of smart meters: Pr Sec PDD; From past 5-6 months, power pilferage has dipped too: Officials

Riyaz Bhat

Srinagar, Jul 09 (KNO): In Kashmir valley, thousands of domestic consumers haven’t paid their electricity dues for more than two years, officials said on Tuesday.

Top official of the Power Development Department (PDD) informed the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that domestic or residential consumers in the Kashmir region were the major defaulters.

The official said, “Primarily, domestic or residential consumers are the major defaulters. Out of 11.7 Lakh consumers we have 9.9 are domestic consumers. Out of these consumers, nearly 40 percent are smart and conventional metered consumers. Rest almost 60 percent of consumers are flat rated consumers.”

“From the domestic consumers section, we call those defaulters who don’t pay electricity bills for three consecutive months and their bill exceeds Rs 12,000,” he said.

The official further said, “KPDCL disconnect their smart meter connection. For flat rated consumers, we also disconnect them by other ways in accordance to our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).”

“By and large, nearly 91 percent of our consumer base is domestic. This year so far we have disconnected more than 11,000 electricity connections out of which 8600 were domestic and 2500 were commercial and others were hoteliers and industrialists,” the official said.

About the power pilferage, the official said that from the past 5-6 months, power pilferage has reduced. “Many consumers are desisting now from power pilferage activities.”

He said, “In Kashmir valley, hundreds of thousands electricity consumers are defaulters. They haven’t paid bills for more than two years.”

Meanwhile, PDD Principal Secretary Rajesh Prasad informed KNO that “In past couple of months, the losses in the Kashmir region have reduced by nearly 10 percent. This development took place after the installation of smart meters.”

On asking about the bill issues of many smart meter consumers, Prasad said, “There are very few chances of technical glitch and issues. However, if any consumer if facing any issue related to bill variation must contact the PDD consumer services.”—(KNO)