e-billing jacks up power board revenue by 30 pc
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 2
Switchover to e-billing under the computerisation project being implemented in the city division of the state electricity board has led to a net increase of a whopping 30 per cent in the revenue.

The revenue on account of sale of power for the month of April from five subdivisions in the city division, where spot billing has been introduced under a pilot scheme, has shot up to Rs 377.56 lakh from Rs 242.81 lakh last year.

The gross increase comes to over 55 per cent. However, after setting off the increase on account of 3.5 per cent rise in the number of consumers and 8.3 per cent hike in electricity tariff, the comparable figure works out to Rs 321.88 lakh. Thus, the net increase comes to over Rs 79 lakh for a single month. The annual impact will be over Rs 9 crore.

It is a huge amount when one takes into account the fact that the state government is paying a subsidy of Rs 140 crore to domestic consumers annually. So far, only 30,000 out of total 52,591 consumers have been covered under spot billing. As the high-tension connections cannot be brought under spot billing, only about 36,000 consumers will be covered under the pilot project in the city.

The actual saving is much more as bill distributors have been eliminated. There are 49 divisions and 258 subdivisions in the state catering to about 18 lakh consumers. The domestic and commercial power fetches about Rs 500 crore annually and as such a nominal increase of 20 per cent will bring additional revenue of Rs 100 crore.

Similarly, a 5 per cent increase in the revenue from industrial and bulk consumers will bring additional revenue of Rs 65 to Rs 75 crore annually. Thus, computerised billing will generate additional revenue more than the amount being paid as subsidy by the government.

The data also points out to large-scale under-billing and other malpractices. Apart from under-billing, the meter readers had been issuing bills on average basis, without obtaining the actual reading.

It also explained the reason for stiff resistance to spot billing. Now, meter readers have no option but to visit each and every household and issue bills on the spot.

The board has procured 60 spot billing machines for 94,000 consumers and it proposes to get 20 more for total coverage.