Amnesty and Voluntary Load Increase Announcement Scheme Implemented for Electricity Consumers

• 13 Jan 2023

Why In News?

• On January 12, 2023, Rajasthan Minister of State for Power Bhanwar Singh Bhati said that amnesty scheme has been implemented by the Power Distribution Corporations to recover the outstanding amount of electricity from the consumers of regular and disconnected connections of agricultural category and other categories of disconnected connections in the state. Along with this, a voluntary load declaration scheme has also been implemented to regularize the unauthorized increased load of agricultural connections.

Key Points

• Minister of State for Power Bhanwar Singh Bhati said that it has been decided to implement voluntary load declaration scheme to provide convenience to agricultural consumers and to increase the quality of power supply in the agriculture sector and to prevent revenue loss.
• Amnesty scheme has been implemented till June 30, 2023 to recover the outstanding amount of disconnected connections of all categories of electricity consumers other than agriculture category by December 31, 2022.
• Under this scheme, 100 percent discount in interest and late payment fee will be provided on the consumer depositing the entire principal outstanding amount by March 31, 2023 and if the consumer deposits the principal dues between April 1 and June 30, 2023, then 50 percent discount in late payment fee and interest will be provided.
• Under the scheme, consumers of regular and disconnected connections of agriculture category will be able to deposit the outstanding amount without interest and penalty in lump sum or maximum 6 bi-monthly installments till December 31, 2022. The disconnected connection of the consumer will be connected as per the prevailing provisions of the agriculture policy. This scheme will not be available to the consumers who have taken advantage of such schemes in the last three years and cases of theft and misuse will not be included under this scheme.
• Under the scheme, the disconnected connection of the consumer can be re-added as per the provision if the entire principal outstanding amount is deposited by March 31, 2023 or the entire outstanding amount is deposited from April 1 to June 30, 2023 with a discount of 50 percent in late payment fee and interest.
• To take advantage of this scheme, the consumer will have to submit the application to the concerned Assistant Engineer's office and the large industrial category consumers to the office of senior accounts officer-CA-HQ.
• Bhanwar Singh Bhati informed that the Voluntary Load Increase Declaration Scheme will be applicable to agricultural connections issued till December 31, 2022 and will be effective till March 31, 2023.
• Under the scheme, if the consumer wants to connect the disconnected connections up to two years ago with the increase in load, he can also take advantage of this scheme. The corporation will bear the cost of transformer capacity increase and new 11 KV line and sub-station, if necessary, for agricultural consumers taking advantage of the scheme during the plan period.
• During the implementation of the scheme, if the VCR of the increased load of any consumer has been filled, then that too will be regularized as per the provisions of this scheme. Such farmers who increase the load by installing another motor on the same well or increase the load on the second well which is in the same Khasra/Khet/Complex/Marmalade to run the second motor, then they will not be given the benefit of this scheme and if in the past Two motors are approved and farmers can take advantage of this scheme if they want to increase their load.
• After the completion of the scheme on March 31, 2023, a special campaign will be launched for weight verification and if their weight is found to be more than the approved weight during checking, the amount will be recovered as per the agricultural policy.