TNPDCL faces Rs 5,135 crore bill default
Local bodies top bill defaulter list with Rs 2,813 cr, while govt depts with Rs 2,286 cr
CHENNAI: Amid the mounting debts, the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) has been facing a huge bill default to the tune of Rs 5,135 crore from various government departments, local bodies, and others till March this year.
As per the TNPDCL's defaulters report till March 2025, the local bodies top the defaulter's list with dues running to Rs 2,813 crore, followed by the state government departments with electricity bill defaults of Rs 2,286 crore.
As many as 7.88 lakh low-tension electricity service connections, including 5.59 lakh connections of local bodies and 88,518 connections of the state government departments, have a total default of Rs 5,135.47 crore.
Among various distribution regions of the TNPDCL, the Erode region has recorded the highest default of Rs 983 crore from 1.09 lakh service connections, while the Tiruchy region stands second with dues amounting to Rs 907 crore from 1.35 lakh connections.
However, in terms of the average default amount per service connection, Chennai region tops the list with an average default of Rs 1.38 lakh for 27,017 connections with total dues of Rs 375 crore.
S Neelakanta Pillai, a retired Tangedco executive engineer and founder of Citizens' Contribution in Democracy, who shared the TNPDCL's defaulters’ data, said that local bodies always defaulted on the electricity bills, but now the state government departments also started defaulting in the last few years.
“The sub-registrar offices, which are one of the prime revenue earners for the state government, are failing to pay their bills. A really bad trend is being set with the government departments defaulting to the tune of Rs 2,286 crore,” he said, noting that the Electricity Act mandates all consumers to pay their electricity consumption bills. “If the utility has issues to cut power supply to the defaulters, it should approach either the TNERC or the court seeking to recover its bill,” he said.
Sources in the TNPDCL said that it has established a dashboard for all local bodies and government departments for monitoring the dues. They can view and monitor the service connection-wise arrears and even identify the unwanted service connections and take action to disconnect those connections if warranted, sources said. The official added that the government has made budgetary allocations to pay the electricity bill dues to the departments.
