The state's power distribution companies have crossed the Rs 600-crore mark for monthly revenue collection and the bosses now target to reach Rs 700-crore a month.

'We aim to collect at least Rs 700 crore monthly revenue so that we don't need to ask for more government assistance to meet our costs. It is true that the field officials are doing a good job but they need to better their performance for meeting the desired goal,' a senior official in the Bihar State Power Holding Company told The Telegraph.

The power companies at present spend around Rs 900 crore a month - around Rs 800 crore goes into power purchase and the rest is spent on recurring expenses. This means the power companies require around Rs 10,800 crore annually. The government has announced help of Rs 2,952 crore to meet the cost of subsidy given to different categories of consumers and another financial help of Rs 1,467 crore to the power companies for meeting the cost of loss incurred due to AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses.

'We are pressing for Rs 700 crore monthly collection because five months have gone by in the current fiscal. By achieving this goal, we will be able to meet our expenses with the help provided by the state government, and there would be no need of additional assistance like in the previous years,' said the official.

Sources said a special drive to stop incidents of power theft, and a cash dole scheme for good revenue grosser have contributed to the improvement in the monthly revenue generation.

'We have already launched a special drive through which we are urging people to desist from power theft,' said a senior official in the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd. 'Emphasis will be laid on bringing people who do not pay heed to our drive to book.'

More than 6,000 FIRs related to power theft have been lodged in the first five months of the 2017-18 fiscal and this number is likely to go up after Chhath. At present, the power companies in Bihar have around 1 crore consumers and they are aiming to add 54 lakh consumers by the end of 2018.

'For now we are laying special emphasis on providing new connections to people who did not have it. This would add to our number of consumers and in turn increase revenue collection,' said the power distribution company official.

Cash dole for field officials collecting revenue over and above their target - the second factor that has helped increase revenue, according to the internal assessment - has reaped more or less satisfactory results in August 2017, officials said.