Unpaid electricity bills have led to poor access to electricity, including issues like widespread outages and rationing of power, suggests a new study.
The study draws upon microdata from poor, rural or small-town communities in Bihar where the link between payment and supply had been severed. In 2017, customers received on average about 17 hours of electricity a day.
“Most strikingly, areas that paid more didn’t necessarily get more power electricity,” stated the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), which conducted the study in collaboration with the London School of Economics and Political Science and Yale University.
