Date:16/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/16/stories/2008061654270400.htm

New Delhi

Many takers for revised power amnesty scheme

Staff Reporter

BSES alone has received close to 8,000 applications
NDPL has received 5,638 applications so far

NEW DELHI: The revision in the format of the amnesty scheme for power consumers has paid off and power distribution companies have seen a surge in the number of people availing themselves of the scheme.

According of officials, the number of consumers who had opted for the scheme when it was first launched in October 2007 is much lower than the number of consumers who have come forth to avail themselves of the scheme in the past one month. Power distribution company BSES alone has received close to 8,000 applications from consumers seeking, replacement of tampered meters and settlement of direct theft cases.

In its areas of operation, the BSES has received 1,172 applications for change of tampered meters in the BRPL area and 1672 from the BYPL area, the number of applications for settlement of direct theft and direct abstraction of energy stands at 3,018 in BRPL area and 1,243 in BYPL area respectively.

The company has also received more than 1000 applications from residents of jhuggi jhonpri clusters for conversion from un-metered to metered connections.

In the NDPL area, the total number of consumers who have applied under the scheme that has now been extended up to July 11 is 5,638.

According to NDPL officials, 350 consumers have applied for change of tampered meter scheme and 1158 have applied under the theft of power scheme. In its area of operation the company has received 4,130 applications from JJ cluster residents for seeking new metered connections.

As per the revised scheme consumers who have been paying their dues can now change their tampered meters or old electro mechanical meters for the new electronic ones without having to pay any charges.

However for those who have electronic meters installed on or after July 1, 2002, which have been tampered the consumer will be liable to pay the cost of a new meter and penalty calculated as the total billed amount based on the recorded consumption of the declared meter during the last six months, before the date of the declaration. No criminal or legal proceedings will be initiated against consumers who make declaration under the revised amnesty Scheme.

“For theft cases already booked under Direct Theft (DT) / Direct Abstraction of Energy (DAE), BSES will settle and close such cases if a domestic consumer pays 40 per cent of their assessed bill and industrial and commercial consumers pay 50 per cent of their assessed bill raised in such cases”, said a BSES official.