Electricity board ties up with post offices for collections

The Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB), which distributes power across the state except in Ahmedabad and Surat, has decided to collect its bills through post offices.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between the Board and the Department of Posts recently.

As a pilot project, bill collection through post offices was kicked off in Vadodara. The state government now plans to extend the new system to 12,000 towns and villages across the state during the current fiscal year.

"While the consumers in places like Vadodara, Rajkot and Jamnagar have many options to pay the electricity bills, consumers in smaller towns and villages face difficulty in reaching the far flung bill collection centres. Now with the bills being collected throughout the post offices, consumers will be spared of the troubled and GEB will gain by the faster collection of pending bills," said Saurabh Dalal, minister of state for energy and petrochemicals, here on Wednesday.

Department of Posts will earn commission for collecting the bills. The state government, which has been facing a stiff opposition from the farmers for the high electricity tariff, has substantially increased the subsidy to the agricultural consumers during the last fiscal, the misters said.

"While Congress government in 1995-96 paid a subsidy of Rs 996.63 crore, during the last financial year the government paid Rs 1,719 crore as subsidy," he said.

"The government is ready to hike the subsidy substantially during the current year, provided the consumers stop defaulting and pay up their outstanding bills. If we can stop the electricity theft completely, the agricultural sector will benefit further in the form of subsidy and lower tariff," added Dalal.

Pilferage and electricity theft have become the major concerns of the loss-making Board. During the last financial year, GEB checked around 8 lakh electricity meters residential segment to curb electricity theft.

For the current year, the board has set up a target of checking 12 lakh metres.