Team Herald
MARGAO: The new scheme launched by the Goa Electricity Department (GED) for payment of bills has come under fire from cooperative societies in Goa.
The scheme has been launched in collaboration with Thane Janta Sahakari Bank.
The members of the cooperative societies informed that they were shocked to receive a notice issued by the department on Monday directing them to stop collecting electricity bill payments from the public from February 1. They were further instructed that if they want to continue to collect the bill payments, they can approach the TJSB bank and enrol as agents.
Melwyn Pereira, chairman of NTSCC, stated that the society had entered into an agreement with the department and an amount of Rs 2,68,000 was deposited as bank guarantee with the department to enable the cooperative societies/banks to accept bill payments in favour of GED.
He asked the authorities that as their money was already pledged, the department must first refund their money and also the commission due which is pending since the last one year.
“Though the commission per bill was a mere Rs 1.5, the accumulated commission has not been paid while the department was very prompt to collect their amount on a weekly basis,” he said.
“The GED should have considered the proposal only after taking the societies into confidence. The government must understand the difficulties that the common man will face. The department without having any knowledge has indirectly stopped the societies from accepting payments. This will create chaos and long queues. GED is unnecessarily burdening the common man by making them visit the department or TJSB branch,” Paroda VKSS Chairman Upaso Goankar stated.
By routing all the bill payments through just one bank, the members of the cooperative society say that Thane Janta Sahakari Bank would earn several lakhs of rupees in commission every month. However, the TJSB has only two branches in Goa.
Interestingly, the new scheme has not been uploaded on the GED website. Customers still have the option of paying their bills at the sub-divisional office of GED but only up to a limit of Rs 5000.
Officials in the electricity department informed that there was no tender floated for the appointment of the TJSB bank.
Roland Martins (of GOACAN) responded to the new policy of GED by stating that there must be maximum points of payment collections and cooperatives are collection centres that are existing for many years. “People must not be made to go hunting for payment centres,” he said.
