Alleging that Maharashtra Government wants to recover the electricity bills dues like a moneylender, Leader of Opposition at State Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis said, “The Government wants to recover the overdue electricity bill like a moneylender, so the Government is creating an unnecessary hype citing the reason of COVID-19. On the one hand, instead of helping the farmers and the common people in distress, the government wants to force them to do so. From the presentation made by the Energy Minister, it was clear how much arrears increased during his tenure.” The dues include cross-subsidy made in case of agriculture pumps, losses are to be recovered through tariff. But this Government is doing forced recovery . Corona has brought everybody at kneel but Government doesn’t want to understand it. It is targeting poor farmers and even the lower middle class people, added Fadnavis while talking to media 

 

Raut blames Fadnavis Govt for MSEDCL dues Maharashtra Energy Minister Dr Nitin Raut accused previous Devendra Fadnavis Government of pushing state-run MSEDCL in debt as department is facing outstanding dues of Rs 73,879 crore due to the inefficiency of the previous Government. The Energy Department was with the BJP when it was ruling the state between 2014 and 2019 in alliance with the Shiv Sena. Raut said the state government was also considering further division of MSEDCL into four companies to turn it into a profitable entity, a model successfully implemented by neighbouring Gujarat, incidentally a BJP-ruled state. Dr Raut said after making a presentation to the state cabinet on outstanding dues, customer base and measures being taken to fix leakages, “The outstanding amount in 2014-15 was Rs 23,224 crore, which steadily increased due to the inefficiency of the earlier Government to reach 71,243 crore in March 31 this year and 73,879 crore as on July. Dr Raut said recovery of dues was challenging post floods and cyclone in the state, while the cross-subsidy factor was already high at Rs 12,762 and can't be increased further. "The loan on Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited is Rs 45,440 crore. A consultancy firm has been hired to fix the loopholes as the state utility is the second largest in Asia. Their report will be tabled before the cabinet," poined out Dr Raut.