Advisor Power, Tovihoto Ayemi, Friday urged the electricity consumers in the state to pay for what they consumed as the department of power was not a welfare department.
Speaking at a meeting convened by power department’s special team at SLDC Complex Nagarjan here on Friday, the advisor said that Nagas were not used to paying tax due to the constitutional provision. He, however, said that paying electricity bill was not tax. The meeting was discussed pressing issues including power theft, improving revenue collection and ensuring effective management of power system in Dimapur.
Describing electricity as an essential necessity, Tovihoto said “We need to pay for what we are using.”
STATUS OF DIMAPUR DIST
Consumers in Dimapur increased from 1.07 lakh in 2018-19 to 1.11 lakh in 2021-22
Revenue generation down from Rs.60.32 crore to Rs.24.04 crore.
Factors responsible for revenue gap– power theft (20%), no meter reading (40%) and non-payment of electricity bill (40%).
Maintaining that Dimapur consumes about 50% of state’s total power consumption, advisor appealed to all consumers to pay their electricity bills so the department could help serve them better. Asserting that the department should also pull up its socks, the advisor also urged the civil society groups to contribute in the form of sensitization or awareness campaigns.
He also appealed to the district administration and police to assist the department in increasing the revenue of the power department. Principal secretary power, KD Vizo, in his speech, spoke about how the department was incurring huge lose due to rampant power theft and non-payment of electricity bills.
The secretary said that there should be no shutdown of power supply in Dimapur with the setting up of new transformers in various places. He, however, said that power shutdown was necessary since there were rampant power thefts.
Vizo said that power theft and non-payment of bill were two major reasons contributing to the huge losses in revenue generation.
The secretary informed that the department would carry out awareness programme on usage of electricity.
Meanwhile, deputy commissioner (DC), Rajesh Soundararajan, said that electricity was an essential necessity, but without basic revenue generation, various developmental schemes or projects would be hit. He requested all stakeholders to collectively ensure that awareness was created.
Giving a power point presentation, an official from the department maintained that consumers in Dimapur increased from 1.07 lakh in 2018-19 to 1.11 lakh in 2021-22, while revenue generated declined from Rs.60.32 crore to Rs.24.04 crore.
The department pointed out that factors responsible for revenue gap constituted power theft (20%), no meter reading (40%) and non-payment of electricity bill (40%).
It was pointed out that poor revenue collection or resource mobilization impacted on inadequate fund for purchasing required power, inadequate fund for maintenance affected consumer services and impedes development of infrastructure for providing 24/7 power supply.
Earlier, the programme was chaired by chief engineer, distribution and revenue, Er. Moa Aier.