The Hindu : Front Page : KSEB asks PSUs to settle arrears

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Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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KSEB asks PSUs to settle arrears

Special Correspondent

A.K. Balan: public sector companies owe huge amounts to KSEB.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Faced with severe financial difficulties, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) on Thursday cracked the whip to wake up the State public sector from its complacency in settling dues mounting to more than Rs.750 crore.

After a meeting with officials, Electricity Minister A.K. Balan told the media that the KSEB would have to take the unpleasant decision of withdrawing power supply to the institutions that were still tardy with payments. The KSEB would wait till after Onam to “issue the first warning,” the Minister said.

He said the Kerala Water Authority alone owed upwards of Rs.700 crore to the KSEB. “There will be problems when hard decisions are taken…If the money does not come in, we may have no other go but to shut down the KSEB,” he said.

The Government should otherwise subsidise the KSEB. But, that just would not happen, he said, listing specific instances of the recent years.

He said the private sector owed the KSEB more than Rs.750 crore. This amount was tied up in court cases going back several years. The conduct of the court cases henceforth would be put under special advocates to ensure speedy realisation of the dues. Giving the reasons for the KSEB’s financial difficulties, he said the previous Government, on the eve of the elections, had reduced the electricity tariff for domestic customers across the board despite the warnings of its Finance Department. Pay revision after the LDF had come to power meant an additional expense of Rs.220 crore a year, of which a sum of Rs.90 crore was for pensions.

He said he had placed the difficulties of the KSEB before Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan twice and expressed the optimism that “something would come out it.”

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