Panaji: The state cabinet has approved the reversal of Rs 43 crore in penalties charged to low-tension (LT) power consumers for excess load from Nov 1, 2025, after the power department failed to notify them in advance, chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Wednesday.Sawant said the decision covered cases of automatic load enhancement, adding that govt had acknowledged its failure to inform consumers before levying the charges.“These benefits will go to all cases of autoload. The cabinet approved the proposal for reversal of penalties levied to low-tension consumers for excess load from Nov 1, 2025, and autoload enhancement for LT consumers. I had promised some days ago that we would reverse the payment, which is Rs 43 crore collected by govt. There was some govt fault involved too. Actually, not a mistake as such, govt did not inform them beforehand, due to which we are reversing the charge,” Sawant said.He explained that discrepancies between the sanctioned and actual power loads had led to the penalties. For instance, a consumer using a load of 5 kW might have obtained approval for only 3 kW, resulting in a charge for the difference.“In such cases, when they got the difference one-time, the consumer started feeling he is being overcharged. But that was not the case,” Sawant said.He added that govt had directed the power department to introduce dual checks to prevent such discrepancies and avoid unnecessary complaints of overcharging.
