The managing director of the Assam Power Distribution Company (APDCL) has written to all senior executives of the Assam government, requesting them to clear all their pending electricity bills. The state government is being requested to hold back the salaries for June until all the pending bills are paid for by the employees, and proof of the same has been submitted by them.
This letter was issued as per the orders of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
With many people using various suspicious techniques to escape paying bills, APDCL, as well as Assam Power Generation Corp. (APGCL), and the Assam Electricity Grid Corp. (AEGCL) — the three power companies run by the government — have been incurring heavy losses. This has forced APDCL to request the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission to increase the energy tariffs. As a result, it is the public that is suffering and having to pay the hiked tariffs, to cover up for the defaulters.
To resolve this issue of defaulting payments, the state government has been asked to direct all the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) to collect a certificate that states ‘no dues payable against electricity bill of APDCL’, from all the employees before they are able to access their salaries. The employees can produce the APDCL’s system-generated receipt as proof of payment to get their ‘no dues’ certificate.
