The Fact News Service
Ludhiana, September 24
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has issued a Commercial Circular on Monday with regard to One Time Settlement Scheme for all categories of defaulting consumers (except AP and government connections).
Giving this information in a statement here on Monday, MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora said copies of this commercial circular has been sent among others to all Engineer-in-Chief/Chief Engineer (DS), under PSPCL.
Arora said according to this commercial circular, PSPCL has decided to launch One Time Settlement Scheme for its consumers to give an opportunity to all categories of defaulting consumers (except AP and the Government Departments of Water Supply & Sanitation, Local Govt., Rural Development & Panchayat and Health & Family Welfare Departments and other Government Departments) to settle the default of payment/defaulting amount existing as on September 30, 2023.
He added as per this circular, this scheme shall be applicable for a period of three months from the date of issue of this circular. Processing fee for consumers opting OTS under Industrial category shall be Rs.5,000 and for non-industrial category Rs.2,000, which shall be adjustable towards the final settled amount under OTS scheme. In case consumer fails to deposit the settled amount intimated through the subsequent notice then the processing fee deposited with the PSPCL shall be forfeited and the consumer’s request for settlement of default under OTS shall be deemed to be cancelled.
According to the commercial circular, various consumer associations/ individual consumers should be informed about the scheme directly also so that maximum number of eligible consumers can avail the benefit of the scheme. The field officers shall contact such effected consumers through various means such as social media, personal contact, advertisement etc who qualify for this scheme to give wide publicity for the same.
Cases will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis, with seniority determined by the date of processing fee deposit. Priority will be given to cases involving disconnections where the consumer/applicant seeks reconnection.
The detailed terms and conditions of this One Time Settlement Scheme have been approved by Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC).
Further, to expedite the matter for finalization of the settlement amount under OTS, normally, the case be processed and cleared at the earliest not exceeding within 60 days from the date of deposit of processing fee along with the requisite documents by the applicant. However, it may be extended further upto 30 days i.e in total 90 days, by issuance of speaking order by the same committee giving justification for the extension.
According to circular, it has been directed that a notice should be served to every Industrial defaulting consumer to settle/deposit this defaulting amount by availing this OTS scheme.
The above notice is to be repeated after every 15 days till the validity of this scheme to defaulting Industrial consumers.
It may be recalled here that Arora, on August 10 this year, he had written to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann drawing his attention towards a representation from the Apex Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) regarding a demand for OTS by PSPCL to the industry in Punjab.
