Corporation owes accumulated
dues of over Rs 712 crore
SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) owes Rs 711.78 crore to various companies from which it is purchasing power.
This was revealed in an RTI filed by Curtis Rani, president of Seng Samla, Mawkneng.
Of the total outstanding dues, MeECL has to pay Rs 570 crore to NEEPCO alone, the RTI revealed.
Stating that the corporation has an outstanding interest of over Rs 400 crore, the RTI said seven companies are yet to clear electricity bills amounting to more than Rs 10 crore.
The seven companies and offices who are yet to pay their bills are Shree Sai Prakash Alloy (Byrnihat), Grey Stone Smelters Ltd. (Byrnihat), Greater Shillong Water Supply, Mawmluh Cherra Cement Ltd., JUD Cement Pvt. Alloys Ltd. (Khliehriat), Purbanchal Alloy Ltd. (Byrnihat) and Sesami Chemical Pvt. Ltd. (Umiam).
Rani lambasted the MeECL saying it is too quick to disconnect power supply to households in case of pending payments and added that the corporation should apply the same yardstick to the companies and government offices whose outstanding bills amount to crores of rupees.
According to the RTI, the outstanding bills in the Western Circle amounts to Rs 118.48 crore, West Garo Hills Rs 62.53 crore, East Garo Hills Rs 40.88 crore, Eastern Circle Rs 40.41 crore, Central Circle Rs 29.73 crore and Shillong Circle Rs 25.86 crore.
MeECL is also incurring a loss of 45 per cent of its revenue and in Shillong city alone, the corporation is incurring a loss of 19.56 per cent due to non-payment of bills by consumers.
Rani further said several offices and departments, like PHE, Health, Police and mobile towers have maximum amount of outstanding dues to be paid to MeECL.
Meanwhile, non-payment of outstanding bills by consumers amounting to more than Rs 1 lakh has exceeded more than 700 households and consumers while there are 25 consumers whose outstanding amount is more than Rs 1 crore.