AGARTALA, Aug 22 (TIWN): TSECL is debt under huge amount of pending bills to the power plants based in Tripura yet power minister manages a narrow escape by saying that ‘so far he have not thought anything regarding this issue’.Talking to TIWN correspondent, Power Minister Manik Dey said that so far no initiative is taken regarding into this issue we will look into this matter. He further sounded hesitant to say anything regarding giving any clear information like when will they clear the pending bills. OTPC had earlier set the deadline by January 7 2016 to TSECL to clear all the pending bills of about 100 crore to the plants. After the OTPC authority has issued a letter to TSECL to clear the pending bill of about 100 crores to OTPC, although TSECL has shown keen interest to clear the bill but so TSECL is unable to clear the bills to the plant. TSECL is supposed to provide money to some power generation companies for supplying power to its customers. But there is no move to clear the pending bills even as TSECL piling heat on the consumers to pay pending energy bill.Although TSECL has taken a tough stand in collecting energy bills from domestic consumers, but it is reluctant to collect pending bills from different government department due to unknown reason.

OTPC had requested the government to clear the due payment and nothing else is in the hand of OTPC. TSECL is about pay the highest due bill to the OTPC power plant based in Tripura; however, despite several urges no action is taken from TSECL to clear the due payments. 

Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) which is reeling under financial crisis, looks set to hike revenue by intensifying collection of bills pending for long period. Added to it, the TSECL has targeted to take certified cases against consumers if they fail to clear their bills in six months. "If any consumer fails to clear their electricity bills for six months, certified case will be taken against them. After that, the list will be forwarded to the Sub Divisional Magistrates in respective sub divisions,"

The TSECL has stressed on collecting all pending bills to hike the revenue.

It is to be mention here that the issue between the power plant and TSECL is old and contradictory.

While the TSECL continues to burden its consumers by threatening them to pay the bill on with the fear of disconnecting their connection, the corporation are not been able to recover power bills worth crores from several government and private bodies.

However, this amount should be recovered on priority basis and if the institutions fail to pay, strict action should be taken against them.

Despite the stunning figures of pending bills; the power connection to the departments cannot not be disconnected as most of their services come under the emergency category.

The Government departments with multiple connections usually don’t pay bills on a regular basis because of budgetary constraints. Most of them pay only when they are granted funds by the State government.