Bescom booked over 8,000 cases of power theft in the last three years

Bescom books 8K cases of power theft, recovers ₹33 cr in fines. Cases registered under BBC & CC; BBCs penalised 3x tariff; CCs pay fine based on sanctioned load; fines go to State govt & Bescom respectively. Cases registered in FY21-22 & 22-23; downward trend in last few years due to regular vigilance & awareness.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has booked over 8,000 cases of power theft between the financial year 2021-22 and 2023-24 (until October 2023). The company has also recovered over ₹33 crore in fines from these cases.

According to a senior official from Bescom, there are two kinds of cases registered under power theft: backward billing cases (BBC) and compounding cases (CC). Under BBC, the consumers are penalised three times the tariff (depending on the category they fall in) for unauthorised use of electricity. However, these cases can be challenged in courts or any other forum.

CCs go to court, where, upon payment of the fine, the FIR lodged in the case will be closed. “It is like getting acquitted in a case,” an official said. The fine here is calculated based on the sanctioned load, as the tariff is different for different loads.  While the penalty recovered from these cases goes to the State government, the fine collected through BBCs goes to Bescom.

Recently, a case of power theft was registered against former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy for drawing power illegally from an electric pole for decorative lights at his residence for Deepavali. While saying that the offence had taken place in his absence and was immediately corrected as soon as it came to his notice, Mr. Kumaraswamy had also alleged that he was charged more than what he should have been under the case. A source revealed that a compounding case was registered in the case of Mr. Kumaraswamy.

In FY 2021–22, Bescom booked 3,369 BBCs and 797 CCs, collecting a penalty to the tune of ₹13.92 crore, while in FY 2022–23, around 2,268 BBCs and 560 CCs were registered, and the penalty collected was ₹12.63 crore. In the ongoing FY, until October 31, 955 BBCs and 235 CCs have been booked, and ₹6.55 crore has been collected as fines, according to the data provided by Bescom.

“There is no direct relationship between the recovery and the cases as sometimes the recovery might have happened in the next FY also. So, there will be a gap between the total cases registered in an FY and the fines we collect,” the official said.

While noticing a downward trend in the number of cases in the last few years, Bescom officials said they had been conducting regular vigilance and creating awareness about power thefts. “We check installations on a random basis and also based on information we get. We also conduct mass raids every week to crackdown on power theft,” the official added.