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• A day after announcing an amnesty scheme for sales tax defaulters, the state government on Wednesday announced a similar scheme for electricity consumers. Under the scheme, the government has offered to waive off a significant portion of pending electricity dues and the entire interest and delay charges.Energy minister Saurabh Patel said that some 3.56 lakh power consumers were expected to benefit from the amnesty scheme, which would result in potential revenue loss of Rs965 crore to the government.

• "The scheme will remain into force from April 1, 2012, to September 30, 2012. It would be valid for consumers whose power connections have been disconnected and pending dues are up to Rs1 crore," he announced in the assembly. Patel said that the scheme would help in achieving the goal of power to all and also result in speedier recovery of dues for the four power distribution companies of the government, i.e. UGVCL, MGVCL, DGVCL and PGVCL.Cases up to the end of year 2011 would be eligible to get benefit under the scheme.

• Power consumers in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat, who are supplied electricity by Torrent Power, would not get benefit of the amnesty scheme. The minister announced that the entire pending power dues as well as interest and delay charges would be waived off for residential consumers of BPL category.For non-BPL residential consumers and commercial consumers, the entire dues would be waived off for pending bill amount of up to Rs5,000. For dues between Rs5,001 to Rs10,000, 80% of the amount would be waived off, while the waiver would be 65% if the dues ranged from Rs10,001 to Rs1 lakh.Likewise, 60% of the amount would be waived off for dues of Rs1,00,001 to Rs50 lakh, and 50% for pending amount above Rs50 lakh and up to Rs1 crore.For industrial consumers, the entire interest and delay charges would be waived off. But, the pending dues would have to be paid in full.

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