Government departments are defaulters to unpaid power bills
17 Feb, 2012Data procured through a RTI application has revealed many government agencies are defaulters to the Mumbai’s Power Supply Agency (BEST). Amongst the current outstanding amount of various agencies till November 2011hospitals owe the most - Rs 4.68 crore, followed by the various offices of the public works department (PWD) - Rs 3.67 crore. Even the courts have an outstanding bill of Rs 1.99 crore. It has been claimed that in return for the arrears, BEST has not made self-adjustments like not paying the paid transport tax to the government, which is about Rs 50 crore. Economists point to the fact that such large payment defaults lead an organisation to the path of loss making, before they turn sick and are eventually shut down.