Last Updated on May 25, 2021 at 12:37 pm
Jammu and Kashmir has suffered Rs 1800 cr revenue loss in the past 5 years due to alleged mismanagement in the Power Development Department (PDD). The main cause of this is because PDD has failed to recover power tariffs from major defaulters.
As per official figures, tariff collection was not met during 2014-15 to 2018-19 and that during 2018-19, as target set was Rs 5,042 crore but receipt on account of sale of power was Rs 3,246 crore. The main issue for huge revenue loss in past years is that sale of power is less than cost of purchase which obviously turned out to be a headache for the state.
According to sources, the department purchased power of Rs 7,167 crore but paid only Rs 5,265 crore against it. The unpaid power purchase bills created an increasing liability of Rs. 8970 crore on the department in March 2019. Revenue deficit for the state was Rs 4,859 crore during 2018-2019 and fiscal deficit was Rs 13,337 crore.
Jammu and Kashmir is facing a revenue generation gap of electricity as the PDD has failed to recover power tariff from big defaulters. Sources said no proper attention has been paid on increasing the power generation in the State and despite the fact that J&K having enough natural resources of power generation, the State is facing acute power crisis.
