Lok Sabha poll nearing, PSPCL to carry burden of outstanding dues into next fiscal year

Aman Sood

Patiala, March 31

With the LS elections round the corner, the state government is in no mood to take any adverse action against power bill defaulters (both private and government departments) who have failed to clear dues totalling hundreds of crores. As a result, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will have to carry forward the arrears into the next fiscal.

According to data procured from the PSPCL sources, the defaulting amount has risen to Rs 4,637 crore by February-end, which includes Rs 2,764 crore from government departments and Rs1,873 crore from other consumers. At the end of the financial year 2022-23 the defaulting amount was Rs 4,240 crore.

The pending bills of various government departments have increased by more than 13 per cent from Rs 2,430 crore to Rs 2,764 crore and for non-government consumers, the increase is of 3.5 per cent from Rs 1,810 crore to Rs 1,873 crore.

“With just two months for the elections and the election code in place, the state government will have to wait till June end to take a decision in this regard and till then the burden will continue,” said a top PSPCL functionary.

The four big defaulters are the Water Supply and Sanitation Department (Rs 1,085 crore), Local Government Department (Rs 996 crore), Rural Development and Panchayat Department (Rs 318 crore) and Health Department (Rs 150 crore

The other departments with significant dues are the Sewerage Board (Rs 77 crore), Home Affairs and Jails (Rs 24 crore) and PWD (Rs 22 crore).

There are eight circles of the PSPCL with a defaulting amount of Rs 150 crore or more. Gurdaspur leads with Rs 306 crore, Bathinda (Rs 253 crore), Muktsar (Rs 253 crore), Amritsar city (Rs 185 crore) and Mohali (Rs 181 crore). Other three circles in this category are Patiala, Amritsar sub-urban and Sangrur.

Among non-government defaulters, there are 10 circles with more than Rs 100 crore against each. The four big circles are Amritsar sub-urban with Rs 192 crore, Muktsar (Rs 191 crore), Bathinda (Rs 162 crore) and Jalandhar (Rs 159 crore).

“The financial survival of the PSPCL hinges on the clearance of dues of defaulting government departments. In absence of timely payments, two months back the PSPCL management had failed to pay salaries and pensions on time,” said All-India Power Engineers Federation spokesperson VK Gupta. “It is high time the state government owns the bills of the defaulting departments as majority of them are essential services and the PSPCL cannot disconnect their power connections,” he stated.