Aizawl, June 9: The Mizoram government has appealed to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) not to discontinue power supply to the state.
The power company had issued a notification to the government stating that it would discontinue power supply from June 16, as the state?s debt has reached Rs 6,334.74 lakh in 15 years.
Sources said the state has to buy from outside 75 per cent of its power requirement with Neepco being the biggest supplier. While it purchases power at the rate of Rs 6.36 per unit, consumers pay Rs 2.10 for each unit consumed.
As a result, the government had to spend Rs 84.51 crore on power in 2001-02 while the revenue it earned in this sector was only Rs 22.19 crore.
The sources pointed out that Mizoram was not the only state which had problems in paying its power bills. Assam has a power debt of Rs 91171.91 lakh as on January 2003, Manipur Rs 18416.95 lakh while Nagaland owes Rs 7834.98 lakh to Neepco.
In a bid to tackle the problem, the Centre launched the securitisation scheme under which all debts accrued before October 2001 can be cleared through government bonds.
This is, however, only possible through an agreement between the Union power minister, the Reserve Bank of India and the state government. The Mizoram Cabinet is yet to okay this agreement.