MSEB lines up ad blitz to promote amnesty plan for farmers

Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) is on an advertising blitzkrieg and has earmarked Rs 3 crore to be spent by March end to reach out to each individual farmers in the state about a new amnesty scheme through which it hopes to mop up Rs 1,037 crore out of a total outstanding amount of Rs 3,148 crore of agricultural arrears.

The balance 50 per cent of the outstanding principal amount, interest component and delayed payment charge levied on the outstanding amount has been waived under the scheme.

The sum is owed by around 22 lakh defaulter agriculturists out of a total pool of 24 lakh agricluturists supplied by MSEB.

The scheme waives off the balance sum including delayed payment charges (DPC) of Rs 53 crore provided that Rs 1,037 crore is paid up by the farmers in three installments by March 31.

Arrears have to be cleared in three installments of 20 per cent in January and 15 per cent each in February and March, being 50 per cent of the total outstanding principal amount owed to MSEB.

In addition to this, the agriculturists are required to clear their current bills (six monthly cycle from April to September) in full before February 28 to be eligible for the amnesty scheme.

MSEB chairman Ashok Basak has earlier announced that till January 31, the board has collected a sum of Rs 309 crore out of an estimated Rs 750 crore through the scheme.

A senior MSEB official told Business Standard: "January was a good beginning to the amnesty scheme despite the fact that out of Rs 350 crore of the current bill and Rs 300 crore in the first installment only a total sum of Rs 309 crore was realised. This occurred due to the delay in the issuance of the government resolution that happened only on January 2. It took another two weeks for individual bills to be presented to each of the defaulting farmers and the MSEB officials took it upon themselves, instead of relying upon any agency to carry out this task."

Under the scheme, the farmers were required to pay up their currently outstanding six monthly bill by January 1.

But the government resolution was issued after that and now the state government has extended this deadline to February 28.

"Each defaulting agriculturist is being issued the bill that shows the component of arrears that has to be paid in January, February and March along with the current bill amount owed to MSEB. Officials of the board starting from chairman Basak, technical member Avinash Sethji and secretary Sanjay Bhatia are personally touring the state to effectively communicate the scheme. Even hitherto inimical agricultural cooperatives have been won over by the scheme," the official said.

He added that some farmers had even cleared up 100 per cent of their bills as they realise that the scheme is unlike the one offered ever before and unlike one that would follow in the coming years.

The months of February and March are expected to result in larger realisations on account of the Rs 1,037 crore in outstanding arrears as part of the amnesty scheme and remaining current bill payments that could see the MSEB coffers swelling reasonably.