by 
Nagpur(khabarbat):
Mahavitaran has given good service to its consumers during the lockdown. However, as the recovery of electricity bill for this period is very low, the financial condition of Mahavitaran has become very critical. Even in this situation it is necessary to give best services to its consumers for which Mahavitaran needs funds.Considering all this, the State energy department has asked for Rs.10 Thousand Crore grant from the center. After, discussing the issue with the officers of energy department, the Hon.Energy Minister, Dr.Nitin Raut wrote a letter on 2 July 2020 to Central Energy Minister Shri.R.K.Singh asking for this grant.
The various associations and consumers are demanding for discounts in the electricity bill of the lockdown period. As all the industries and Commercial offices were closed during lockdown. Even the consumers are financially not able. Then also Mahavitaran is making all the efforts of giving best service to its consumers, said the Hon.Energy Minister Dr.Nitin Raut. He further added that out of the total revenue of Mahavitaran approximately 60% revenue is collected from Industrial and Commercial consumers.This helps in providing electricity at reasonable rates in the form of cross subsidy to the residential and agricultural consumers.
To curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown was announced on 22 March 2020. This had a major impact on Mahavitaran's revenue of April, May and June month. The essential spends such as power purchase, employee salary, various tax, loan EMIs etc were inevitable. Hence, Mahavitaran is in a huge financial crisis and now it is getting difficult to spend on the routine day to day activities. Therefore, an overdrop of Rs.3,500 cr. is taken in the current budget. As there is a loan of 38, 282 crores for various infra projects, for which an EMI of Rs.900 crore and insterest upon that is mandatory payments, said the Hon.Energy Minister, Dr.Nitin Raut.
He further said that, a heap of pending payments since April 2020 to the generation companies is increasing. This has caused a long term financial loss to Mahavitaran. It will take a long time for Mahavitaran to come out of it. Also, Mahavitaran has not received any positive response from banks and other financial institutions for the required funds.
Mahavitaran has not got any benefit of the Rs.90, 000 Crore package announced by the center. Mahavitaran's consumers are getting affected because of all this. The Hon.Energy Minister, Dr.Nitin Raut has appealed that the center should consider the serious financial condition of Mahavitaran arised due to the Corona pandemic and it should provide a grant of Rs.10000 crore to Mahavitaran.
