MUMBAI: The MSEDCL on Monday announced that it has launched a massive drive across the Mumbai metropolitan region to recover payments for pending electricity bills and has temporarily disconnected power supply for 6,474 consumers this month.
“This was a last resort after making several attempts to convince these power consumers to pay their bills and clear the past arrears,” said a senior official, adding that notices have been issued to these consumers to make part or full payment and get the electricity supply restored.
Among these, as many as 1815 power consumers are from parts of Mumbai and Thane while 3087 users are from Navi Mumbai, officials said. The notices were issued as per the directives of MSEDCL joint MD Chandrakant Dange.
The arrears across most parts of MMR has now collectively mounted to Rs 311 crore, and MSEDCL has incurred huge financial losses due to non-recovery. “We have decided to conduct the drive to ensure that maximum people pay up. We first appeal to them through sms and social media to pay the bills, and when every attempt fails, we have to disconnect supply and warn them,” an official added.
Of the total arrears, Rs 52 crore was for residential consumers while Rs 25 crore for commercial and Rs 51 crore for industrial consumers, sources added. "Just like people are consumers, even MSEDCL is a consumer as it buys electricity from other sources. We need money to procure power and also for infrastructure maintenance besides the overhead costs," a senior official added.
