GUWAHATI, March 1 � The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said that the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) had not prepared any comprehensive long-term plans, rather short-term plans were prepared by it on the basis of allocation of funds by the Central or the State Governments under various schemes.
Further, the CAG, in its report said that the increase in the distribution capacity of the APDCL had not matched with the pace of growth of the consumer demand and was not adequate to meet the projected load demand as per electric power survey committee's 17th report.
There was a wide gap in the transformation capacity compared to connected load, it is clear that the actual addition of sub station was inadequate. This gap in transformation capacity led to overloading of the system and consequential rotational cuts, adverse voltage regulation and higher quantum of energy losses, the CAG report said.
The report also revealed that the APDCL did not compare the rates for supply of meters quoted by the contractors. The rate paid to the contractors were in the range of Rs 1800 to Rs 1950 for single phase meters, Rs 4495 to Rs 4816 for three phase meters and Rs 10266 to Rs 12031 for three phase CT meters. Though the rates quoted by the contractors for meters of similar specifications under various packages differed substantially, the APDCL did not compare the rates and negotiate with the contractors to bring the rates to the lowest level. This inaction of the APDCL led to an avoidable loss of Rs 2.52 crore against the supplies made by the three suppliers of electricity meters.
The CAG refused to accept the reply of the APDCL in this regard stating that the "comparison is made on the basis of ex-worked price of meter and included all the required assorted items."
"Meters of even lower weight were procured at higher price. Further, the elements freight and insurance which were different depending on distance and condition of sites were excluded by us while comparing the prices of meters."
The APDCL stated in August 2011 that the vendors installed 3.27 lakh meters and receipt and replacement of defective meters was a continuous process and these were handed over and taken over locally at the circle level at regular intervals. Further, there is no monitoring at circle and sub divisional level of replacement of defective meters by the contractors.
