Power bills can be also paid by old high denomination notes

Lucknow: The Union government has added one more service for which old currency notes are acceptable . It is power supply. The government had previously allowed this facility for some other services including health and railways. In both government and private hospitals bills could be paid through scrapped notes.

A Uttar Pradesh government spokesman said here on Thursday it was done at the behest of UP Power Corporation, a state government undertaking. Permission for the same has been also given to other states. This can be availed till November 11 midnight ( Friday midnight).

The corporation got active soon after the order was received. Additional counters were opened and extra work force deployed to help the customers. These counters will work overtime and take deposits till the end of the day.

Energy secretary, Sanjay Agrawal, had made the request for the same early this morning soon after the offices opened. He told the Centre that five companies collect deposits to the tune of over Rs 100 crores per day and most of the payments are made through Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

He had assured the government that these companies will collect payments only for the old bills. Non-payments can lead to disconnection and cause inconvenience to the customers. The matter was also referred to the power minister Piyush Goel. The government accepted the request to provide relief to consumers.