TheKeralastate electricity boards (KSEB) efforts to steer itself clear of the mountinglosseshave been seriously hit with the second wave ofCovid-19pandemic. The revenue dues from various organizations that had dropped to Rs 1,388 crore by March 31, 2019, through an extensive drive, has shot up and reached Rs 2,936 crore by June 30 this year, marking an increase of Rs 1,548 crore in just two years.

As per the details of finances of the KSEB accessed by STOI, during the period of pandemic alone, the dues had increased by Rs 1,049 crore. Of the total dues, Rs 739.44 crore is from the Kerala water authority (KWA) alone. The KWA is supposed to pay Rs 27 crore every month to the KSEB. Though the dues of KWA were even more, the earlier dues were cleared by the government by splitting it into four instalments and allocating those in the state budget.

When it comes to the revenue earnings of the KSEB, even though 76% of the total consumers are domestic consumers, only 37.51% of the income comes from this category. This is primarily because the majority of domestic consumers are within the category of 1 to 250 monthly slabs, in which the Average bills are much lesser than the average cost of power supply, the finances show.

The Kerala state electricity regulatory commission had revised the power tariff four times since 2013-14, and the last time the power tariff was increased was in July 2019.