SRINAGAR, June 28:
Power Development Department has come in for sharp criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General for allegedly allowing the arrears on electricity charges to accumulate to whopping Rs 2,000 crore during the last four years.
“Lack of any serious measure for recovery of arrears can be gauged from the fact that the arrears of electricity charges (EC), including electricity duty (ED), accumulated from Rs 1,220.18 crore in April 2011 to Rs 2,092.41 crore at the end of March 2015,” the CAG said in its report which was tabled in the State Assembly here.
Of these arrears, it said Rs 1,015 crore pertaining to State Government departments (other than corporations and bodies) had been waived by the Government pursuant to a Cabinet decision (March 2013), thereby leaving Rs 1076.78 crore recoverable as of March 2015.
The report said the actual realisation of revenue was still significantly less than the budget estimates.
“During the period 2010-11 to 2014-15, the shortfall ranged between 19 per cent and 34 per cent,” it said.
The report criticised the State Power Development Department (PDD) for its failure to implement the four recommendations contained in the report in 2010 and focused on improving internal controls, demonstrating efficient enforcement for proper realisation of energy charges and electricity duty.
On non-levying of ED on sale of electricity, the report said “five years down the line, neither had any exemption been granted to PDD from payment of electricity duty to the Power Development Corporation nor any ED been charged on sale of power during 2010-15 resulting in loss of Rs 1,194.13 crore.
“The department had also not initiated steps for recovery of ED of Rs 259.13 crore pointed out previously,” it said.
On shortfall in electrical inspection and levy of fee, the report said the deficiency had not been addressed during the period 2010-15.
“No periodical inspection had been carried out resulting in further loss of Rs 1.25 crore for about Rs 12.66 lakh installations existing at the end of March 2010,” the report said.
As per the information collected from seven subdivisions, the CAG said the number of disconnected installations stood at 977 with an outstanding power charges of Rs 31.94 crore with an ED implication of Rs 7.02 crore, which was recoverable as of July 2015.
“None of the cases has been referred to land revenue authorities for recovery,” it said.
Out of outstanding ED of Rs 7.55 crore payable by Salal Hydroelectric Power Station Jyotipuram for the cost of energy supplied (1998-2010), Rs 4.44 crore had been recovered between 2011 and 2014, leaving a balance of Rs 3.11 crore recoverable as of March 2015, the report said.
It said though a revenue cell functioning as an internal audit wing was in operation in the department, the efficacy of the wing was impaired in the absence of any audit plans, manuals or guidelines for conduct of internal audit and mechanism for follow up on internal audit findings.
“After computerisation of revenue records, the internal audit wing had not carried out any IT audit. This is attributed to lack of trained personnel and was limited to checking of manual records,” it said. (PTI)
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