PANAJI: The Goa electricity department is in the process of modifying the format of monthly power bills to add an extra column for the additional duty that will be charged to all consumers for maintenance of street lights across the state.
The duty will be levied depending on one’s consumption for the month, and will be calculated from the consumer’s power consumed from June, and will reflect in future bills.
Under the Goa Public Lighting Duty Act, 2021, which was notified two weeks ago, the department will levy a duty of 5p/unit for low-tension domestic and low-tension agriculture categories, and 8p/unit for all other categories of domestic, commercial and industrial.
Only the low tension, low-income group category and electric vehicle charging station categories will not be levied the additional duty.
When asked why consumers must pay public lighting duty commensurate with their consumption in their households, a senior engineer in the department said, “The government has a right to levy duty on various sectors of consumers. The department is already levying electricity duty, but this is towards infrastructure work and goes into the government treasury. We cannot keep depending on the government’s grant-in-aid each year”.
Until now, Goa’s streetlights were being maintained by different agencies – NHAI, PWD, GSIDC, CCP, and the tourism department. “If streetlights were not working in some areas, the blame would fall on us despite us not maintaining all the streetlights,” the engineer said.
The department has been maintaining street lighting in panchayat areas, but the local bodies do not collect the duty from consumers and some panchayats don’t have the funds, so the department had to step in.
Around 2 lakh streetlights in Goa are already being maintained by the department, and it is in the process of taking over the rest, which are managed by other bodies.
“It’s not just handing over streetlights. The other agencies must also hand over all other infrastructure, including poles, cables, technology for automatic switching power on and off power, etc. This process is expected to be completed in the next few weeks,” the engineer said.
After the handover, the department will maintain all the streetlights in the state including high masts and those on beaches, the department said.
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