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Currency note ban sends electricity bill collection in UP through the roof

Author: Priyangi Agarwal, TNN
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: November 13, 2016
URL:   http://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/currency-note-ban-sends-electricity-bill-collection-in-up-through-the-roof/55395506

Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) started accepting payment in old currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 after Piyush Goyal, union minister of state with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines, tweeted about it.

Ever since they announced they will be accepting banned currency notes, their coffers have spilled over with cash collection going up 10 fold in many districts of UP, including Agra, Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur. Bareilly zone, where average daily collection of bills used to be Rs 2-3 crore, saw over Rs 25 crore deposited just on Friday. The corporation, which has over Rs 1000 crore in unpaid electricity bills across the state, has set up 154 special camps in Bareilly zone to deal with people making long queues to pay their pending power bills.

 Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) started accepting payment in old currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 after Piyush Goyal, union minister of state with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines, tweeted about it. However, no advance payment is allowed for it and individuals and households can pay current and pending bills. Chief engineer Rajkumar Agarwal said that this is the first time that the department has set up such a large number of special camps for collection of power bills. The power department is collecting payment of power bills from 9 am to 12 midnight and it will continue till the midnight of November 14. Considering the huge rush at these special camps, UPPCL has deployed all office staff here.

 "For the convenience of people, we have set up a total of 154 camps inside power substations of 33 KV in Bareilly zone which has four districts. Besides, we have deployed 15 mobile vans in Bareilly to facilitate consumers. Though both online and offline payment modes are available, we set up camps to help people residing in rural areas," Agarwal added. The daily collection of the department has gone up 10 times. "On Friday, we collected Rs 25 crore from Bareilly zone. Before the demonetisation, we used to collect around Rs 2-3 crore every day. Looking at the huge rush, we believe that we will collect similar amount on Saturday also," he said.

 Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (DVVNL) superintendent engineer Rajeev Jain told TOI, "On Friday, we accepted bill payments till midnight which will continue up to November 14. Our collection on Friday in Agra and Fatehabad circle was around Rs 7.5 crore." On an average day, DVVNL collects around Rs 8-10 lakh from the region. Of the total Rs 25 crore, the highest amount of Rs 10 crore was collected from Bareilly.

    
(With inputs from Deepak Lavania in Agra)
 
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