Power to be prepaid in Telangana government offices

Hyderabad: After missing the April 1 deadline, the Southern Power Distribution Company is now preparing to install rechargeable prepaid electricity meters in State government offices.  

In the first phase, the Telangana government has sanctioned 26,000 prepaid meters to be installed in government offices in Greater Hyderabad. Four companies including ECIL and HPL have been given the contract to install the prepaid meters and maintain them for the next couple of years.

Prepaid meters are being installed because government departments have been defaulting on bill payments, with arrears running into crores of rupees. With a prepaid meter, the consumer can only use as much electricity as he has paid for in advance; there is a re-charging facility.

Arrears of over Rs 1,650 crore are pending from government departments, of which Rs 1,068 crore is due from panchayats in the State. Trial runs are currently being conducted for the prepaid meters.

A decision to extend prepaid meters to domestic consumers will be taken soon.
“It is a decision taken at the highest level in the State government. Even Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the discoms to go for pre-paid meters in government offices. We hope it works,” said a senior official.

At present, discoms don’t disconnect power supply to defaulting government departments because most of them are seen as providing an essential service.

For example, panchayats that do not pay their electricity bills continue to be supplied with electricity because panchayats pump water through motors to supply drinking water to villagers and provide street lights. However, officials admitted that power is not disconnected even to those defaulting government offices that do not provide essential services.