PALAKKAD: The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) expects an earning of Rs.200 crores this fiscal by tracking down power thefts by some of the major industries in the State.

Rishi Raj Singh, Inspector General of Police and Chief Vigilance and Security Officer, KSEB, told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the Anti-Power Theft Squad under him conducted 10,287 inspections and detected 366 cases of power theft and 2,417 cases of other irregularities during the last one year and slapped a bill of Rs.40.04 crores on the offenders.

From February to April this year, 3,128 inspections were conducted and 190 theft cases and 778 other cases of irregularities detected. The KSEB sent `assessment for theft of power' bill to these units for an amount of Rs.22.61 crores and realised Rs.8.11 crores. The rest will be realised after the disposal of cases pending in courts.

He said that during the raid it was found that power-intensive industries such as steel, plastic, granite, rice mills, hotels, etc., resort to pilfering power more than others.

In Palakkad district alone 22 industrial units were booked for power theft and their power connections severed. Steel rerolling mills in the Kanjikode industrial belt in Palakkad topped the list followed by industries based in Kozhikode and Kochi.

The major industries fined for power theft in the Kanjikode belt include Paragon Steels (Rs.7.11 crores), M.A. Steel (Rs.2 crores), Padma Balaji (Rs.4 crores), Transmelt Alloys (Rs.1 crore), Arul Lakshmi (Rs.1.5 crore), Suryalaksmi Alloys (Rs.1.10 crore), A.P. Steels (Rs.70 lakhs plus Rs.3.5 crore pending court decision) and Bhupathy (Rs.23.38 lakhs). Other major units in the district are Malabar Steels, Pattambi (Rs.1.09 crores) and K.R. Alloys, Alathur (Rs.2.19 crores).

The power connection to all these companies had been disconnected but resumed after they paid one-third of the total assessed amount. The rest will be realised after the disposal of the cases, including criminal ones.

He said that the units pilfered power not only to save the electricity bill but also to evade Central and State taxes such as excise tax, sales tax, income tax, etc. The production is assessed on the basis of power consumption. Some units use more than one lakh units of power a day. One steel unit in Palakkad uses 65 lakh units of energy every day.

Mr. Singh said that these companies invented new methods of pilferage. This is a new challenge for the KSEB. In some cases they use remote control devices. In others, they open the meter, put the device inside and close it with duplicate seal.

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