Tangedco instructs officials to collect Rs 47 cr bill dues

CHENNAI: Tangedco has directed its officials to collect outstanding bill dues from nearly 55,000 low-tension consumers totalling Rs 47 crore and also to disconnect the service connection with pending arrears for over two years.

In a recent instruction to all chief engineers, Tangedco said that apart from replacing the defective meters, the officials were directed to take steps to collect outstanding dues.

According to Tangedco data, about 54,500 LT consumers have not paid their bi-monthly bills across the state. The total outstanding dues stand at Rs 47.2 crore.

A Tangedco official said that as per the billing cycle, every consumer meter reading would be taken in the interval of 60 days and the consumer has to pay their energy bills within 20 days of the billing date.

"The failure to pay the bills would lead to disconnection from the 21st day onwards. In most cases, the disconnection would take a little longer in the field even then some consumers fail to pay their dues, " the official added.

Such defaults are made by consumers due to various reasons including door locks, long outstanding and court cases.

Even after the disconnection of the service connection, the official said that if the consumer failed to pay the consumption charges and reconnection charges after 90 days, the assistant engineer would serve the terminal agreement notice to the consumer to remove the meter from the consumer's premises.

"After the serving of the notice, the consumer can still be allowed to continue the service connection Tangedco instructs officials to collect Rs 47 crore bill dues from 55,000 consumerstwo years. After two years, there is no option but to remove the meter from the consumer premises. If the consumer wanted an electricity connection, they have to freshly apply for it," the official added.