All three electricity distribution firms of the State East, Central and West electricity companies have announced Dues Settlement scheme 2016 from February 25 for the consumers whose connections have been severed. The benefit of the scheme is mainly for the
people living under Below Poverty line (BPl), especially the slum dwellers.
The key objective of the scheme is to provide electricity to those people who do not have electricity as per their wish and belong to BPl category. It is expected that with this scheme the poor families can be brought into the main stream. The scheme will be applied till May 31, 2016.
In this ‘Dues Settlement scheme 2016’ the beneficiaries have been divided into two categories. In the first category, the people of BPl category and people living in slums in cities and in the second, other household consumers have been included.
For the first category, there are two options in the scheme. As per the first option, if the consumer wants to clear the whole amount then his bill amount will be charged as on December 31, 2015 and his current billing will start from his current month.
The consumer has to pay the 50 per cent of the pending amount along with the second month bill and the remaining 50 per cent and 100 per cent surcharge will be waived off.
As per the second option if the consumer wants to pay in installments the pending amount will be fixed on December 31, 2015 and the consumer can pay in installments with each month bill. Here the consumer will have to pay surcharge.
In the second category too there are two options for household consumers. First option if the consumer wants to clear the whole dues at a time, the dues will be fixed as on December 31, 2015 and the consumer can pay it along with the second month bill. The 100 per cent surcharge will be waived off.
As per second option in this category, if the consumer wants to pay in instalments then the dues would fixed as on December 31, 2015 and the consumer can pay the installments with the bill along with surcharge.