The Goa cabinet has approved the reversal of Rs 43 crore in excess-load penalties charged to low-tension power consumers from November 1, 2025, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Wednesday. The reversal covers cases involving automatic load enhancement, after the state power department failed to notify consumers before imposing the charges.
Sawant said the government had acknowledged its failure to inform affected consumers in advance. He said the cabinet decision would benefit all cases involving autoload enhancement for low-tension consumers and fulfil his earlier promise to reverse the payments collected by the government.
“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,” Sawant said.
According to the chief minister, discrepancies between the sanctioned load recorded for a connection and the actual load being used led to the penalties. A consumer sanctioned for 3 kW but using 5 kW, for example, could be charged for the difference between the approved and recorded loads.
Sawant said the charge was linked to the difference in the recorded and actual load, rather than an additional penalty for ordinary power consumption. However, consumers began to feel they were being overcharged when the difference was billed as a one-time charge.
“In such cases, when they got the difference one-time, the consumer started feeling he is being overcharged. But that was not the case,” he said.
The decision places the notification gap at the centre of the government’s reversal. Sawant said the department should have informed consumers before levying the charges, describing the absence of prior communication as a failure on the government’s part.
The issue also highlights the administrative consequences of automatically updating consumer load records without ensuring that affected households and establishments understand the change. For low-tension consumers, the sanctioned-load figure is part of the connection’s official electricity record and can influence the charges applied when actual usage is found to exceed that figure.
The government has directed the power department to introduce dual checks to prevent similar discrepancies. The checks are intended to identify differences between sanctioned and actual loads before charges are imposed and to reduce complaints from consumers who receive unexpected bills.
The cabinet’s approval covers penalties levied from November 1, 2025, in cases involving excess load and automatic load enhancement for low-tension consumers. The chief minister said the reversal would apply across all such autoload cases covered by the decision. The government’s next step is the implementation of the approved reversal and the introduction of the department’s dual-check process.
