'Sushasan' consumes power, and doesn't pay

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar's directive to government departments to clear power dues notwithstanding, Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) remains a
harried body with a whopping Rs 3,300 crore lying with government departments as its dues. Three departments alone owe Rs 2,874 crore to the BSEB with the urban development department topping the list of defaulters (see box).

Soon after assuming the post in 2005, CM had asked all the departments to make provision in their budgets for paying energy dues. It is, however, only now that the urban development department has made a budget allocation of Rs 430 crore to pay the energy bill. The water resources department earmarked a meagre Rs 4 lakh while the minor irrigation has paid only Rs 60 crore against its bill of Rs 737 crore.

“We hope the money allocated in the budget of other government departments would be paid to us by the end of this financial year,” a BSEB official said.

Private consumers, both domestic and non-domestic, owe another Rs 2,898 crore to the power board. The Bhagalpur-based weavers' society alone owes Rs 150 crore to the board which has also failed to recover its dues from other powerful and influential private defaulters. BSEB's monthly revenue currently ranges from Rs 125 crore to Rs 130 crore, and officials hope to better the show to Rs 150 crore. "But we would feel good only when the government departments clear their dues," said an official. Bihar's energy secretary C K Mishra, meanwhile, has asked the BSEB to increase its monthly revenue to Rs 160 crore. The board also gets a monthly subsidy of Rs 60 crore from the state government.

source : Times of India