By - Imkong Walling
The story of prepaid energy/electricity in Nagaland goes back to well over a decade. It popped up at a time when rusty — some dead — analogue meters was still in widespread use, even as the state was grappling with the advent of digital post-paid energy metering.
The year was 2013. Marwari Patti in Dimapur became a test site for introducing prepaid energy as a pilot project by the Department of Power Nagaland (DoPN). The pilot project has reportedly been a success resulting in almost halving losses in the test site by almost 50 percent.
It led to the department making a bold move in 2019, with the backing of a Government of India funded Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), picking Kohima and Dimapur as the major start points. The target was to convert the mode of consumption of some 10,000 consumers in Dimapur, and 9000 in Kohima, to prepaid.
The transition in the select locations was reportedly seen through fairly smoothly. It so happened that the consumers selected were business units, mostly of non-Naga ownership, implying the department faced no resistance.
Addressing inaccurate billings, reducing Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, and affecting greater consumer benefit, were, and continue to be at the core of the move towards prepaid energy billing.
‘Pay-as-you-use’ principle is a key feature of the prepaid system, with the department claiming it would encourage judicious energy consumption, while curbing widespread pilferage. Consumers would no longer be burdened with erratic billing, would have greater control over usage unlike the post-paid system, and pay proportionate to what they consume, while enabling the department to narrow escalating revenue loss, a win-win for both, reportedly.
The idea was to introduce it in a phased manner. But the prepaid initiative began to face resistance when it ventured into the ‘Domestic’ domain, giving rise to a tug-of-war between the government and urban collectives, also known as colony councils, especially in Dimapur.
It has had anti-prepaid proponents questioning the rationale behind a sudden policy shift towards prepaid energy in place of what it claimed has been an effective digital post-paid system. According to their argument, post-paid billing is non-manipulative, while the prepaid system would only serve privatisation or private contract interests.
It has given way to a confrontational situation with the government, on May 16, directing the Dimapur district administration, alongwith the police, to tie up with the DoPN for ensuring smooth installation of prepaid meters. It decreed that suitable action be taken against those opposing the initiative.
Both sides claim to have based their reasoning on the greater public good. Unfortunately, both have missed addressing the real cause of the energy problem in the state, namely— erratic billing by the department and dishonest consumers combining to create revenue loss.
As opposed to an allegedly effective digital post-paid billing system, it has not served to offset the DoPN’s revenue woes, and by extension the government’s expenses.
As for the state government, it is delusional to believe that transitioning to prepaid billing is going to heal an energy sector that has been haemorrhaging cash in terms of hundreds of crores for years.
To say again, it is a mess in which almost all have been complicit.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
