Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said the power sector is incurring heavy losses, which is no longer acceptable. He said this during the ongoing Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Thursday.
Rio said against the amount of Rs. 392.28 crore spent on power purchase during 2019-20, the revenue earned was Rs. 162.91 crore, thereby incurring a loss of Rs 229.37 cr.
The CM said that the State Power Department is taking up the first step to outsource metering, billing and collection as a step of reformation in the power sector, the Nagaland Page has reported.
“It is felt that all other revenue related departments should come out with their outsourcing policy to improve revenue as well as service delivery. If required a consolidated Outsourcing Act should be brought out covering all revenue related departments to reform the revenue sector in the State,” Rio said during the discussion.
Since Dimapur and Kohima combined is consuming about 70% of electricity supply and outsourcing of metering, billing and collection is required to be done in these two cities in the first phase, he said.
Mokokchung and Wokha are two other districts where consumption of power is higher and “we can include outsourcing of metering, billing and collection in the second phase.”
Rio said all villages too should be outsourced in the fourth phase as Communitization is a failure in so far as electricity is concerned and it is also a violation of Electricity Act 2003.