The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) earned Rs. 48.12 crore through detecting 6,230 cases of power theft during 2009-2010. Describing this as an all-time record, Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance) V. Balachandran told a press conference here on Wednesday that the collection included the assessment levy of Rs. 44.46 crore and the compounding fee of Rs. 3.66 crore.
“The 17 anti-power theft squads of the Enforcement Wing inspected 1,49,767 connections and found that 6,230 were found to be involved in theft. This marked a rise of 41 per cent in detection as against 4,425 cases detected and an increase of 175 per cent in the collection of fine of Rs. 17.49 crore in 2008-09,” the ADGP said.
During 2009-2010, the number of cases of ‘unauthorised usage of energy' was 3,266 compared to 563 in the previous year. Explaining this type of power theft, he said that for instance, builders were required to take temporary connections during construction. But, some of them were drawing power illegally. More such cases of power theft were found last year. He added that some of agricultural connections were used for commercial purposes. Also, power theft through the direct hook method and meter bypass came down to 2,416 and 346 cases, compared to 2,765 and 6,076 cases in the previous year.
Mr. Balachandran attributed the reduction of such power thefts to “intensive checks” carried out by the anti-power theft squads. Conceding that the enforcement cell was experiencing manpower shortage, he said it had been proposed to have three more squads for Erode, Vellore and Tuticorin districts. At present, there were 17 squads in the State.
