In UP, own up power theft, get away with minor penalty

LUCKNOW: In UP, if you own up a power theft, you can get away with a paltry fine. Taking a cue from finance ministry’s Voluntary Disclosure of Income scheme launched in 1997 to recover dues from defaulters, now UP government would extend benefit to power defaulters on similar lines encouraging them to own up power theft on their part and pay only 25% of the total penalty.
The ever-rising graph of line losses has made state government launch another anti power-theft drive, starting from Monday. To recover losses, UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), this time, is also trying to `reach out' to consumers. Creating awareness about lesser known provisions of Electricity Act that can benefit consumers is part of that.
`Voluntary Disclosure of Power Theft' is one such provision that corporation is publicizing. " According to this provision, consumers disclosing power theft on their part will get a huge respite," said said UPPCL managing director AP Mishra. There will be no FIR lodged against consumers making self-disclosure of power theft.
This proposal was first chalked out by the Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) which sent it to the corporation to make the provision popular among consumers. The PCL has decided to implement it across state.
There are enough cases where a landlord may not be aware that his tenant has rigged meter and committed power theft. In other cases, a consumer might have made rounds of LESA offices to get his meter rectified but no positive response from officers might have forced him to use `katiya'.
In case of `katiya', penalty imposed is Rs 1 lakh per kilowatt and in other cases of power theft, it is Rs 33,000 per kilowatt. Self-disclosure will have consumers paying only one-fourth of the fine.
The anti power-theft drive will be on till February 28. Government has issued instructions to ensure lodging of FIR in cases of power theft and coordination between police, district administration and energy department.
LESA already has handed over a list of at least 30 big defaulters to district administration. On Sunday, mega camps were held at several districts to lend consumers a `patient' ear. "I visited camps at Bahraich, Gonda, Barabanki, Basti, Balrampur and Lucknow on Sunday to see the results. Senior officers were directed to be present at the camps to ensure that consumers got quick response to their complaints," said a PCL official.
UPPCL had launched drive to issue new meter connections in July-August and then a drive to trace electrical address (identifying actual consumer and exact number of consumers) in September last year. The aim was to bring down line losses.
UP has 25% line losses against the national permissible standard of 5.1%. Lucknow accounts for close to 30% line losses. Power theft contributes maximum to line loss.