The West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (WBSEDCL) suffered a revenue loss of Rs 175.85 crore owing to delay in raising bills, theft of electricity and unauthorised use in the fiscal 2015-16, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said in a report.
The audit report, placed before the West Bengal Assembly yesterday, also said that WBSEDCL incurred an infructitious expenditure of Rs 45.75 crore during the period, as it procured software licenses without the required IT infrastructure.
Non-adherence to the regulations and violations of the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003 led to continued Aggregate Technical and Commercial Losses, it said, and added that WBSEDCL had "no plans/targets" to reduce such losses.
In September 2017, West Bengal Power Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had said that WBSEDCL has undertaken a Rs 1,000-crore project to cover about 50,000 km of overhead wires with plastic insulated AB cables across the state, wherever theft is prominent.
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