SHILLONG, April 16: The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited’s (MeECL) revenue collection — a subject of debate today — has been fairly improving, judging by the recent reforms initiated in the Corporation.
In the latest development, the public sector unit has improved its revenue collection from Garo Hills, touching a record high of Rs 9.8 crore in March.
Similarly, the distribution franchisee, which is operating in Phulbari and Nangalbibra subdivisions of the region, collected Rs 6.5 crore in the month of March as opposed to normal collection of Rs 1.6 to 1.8 crore.
Recently, the Chairman and Managing Director of MeECL, Arunkumar Kembhavi, had deputed a senior officer, Marchborn Marbaniang, as Officer on Special Duty (Revenue Monitoring) Western Zone (Garo Hills) to improve the overall distribution system of the area and also to ensure quality service and 100 per cent billing besides efficient collection of revenue.
Insiders say that progressive reforms initiated by Marbaniang have begun to show results.
It is worth noting that Garo Hills, in spite of consuming 25 per cent of the energy, contributes only 10 per cent in terms of revenue to the MeECL; and this is because of a huge 60-70 per cent transmission and distribution losses.
Some electricity lines date back to the 1970s and thousands of consumers are served average bills due to lack of manpower.
Even the average bills are not collected since they do not have online facilities, and collection centres are far away.
The expectation is that such problems will be solved by implementation of smart meters in loss-making areas.
Interestingly many unions and associations of the Corporation had objected to posting of a senior Khasi officer in Garo Hills. They had also given an ultimatum to the government to cancel the posting with a subtle hint that Khasi engineers should not be posted in Garo Hills.