According to Board Member (Technical) P C Patel, the company used to pay the bills at its whims and fancies. And though power was supplied to the company under the commercial category, they paid the bills at the rate of Rs 2 per unit.

GEB officers have also been instructed to sever power connections of defaulters as per the Board norms, he added.

Meanwhile, speaking at a function organised here on Wednesday to mark the new year, Board chairman Nalin Bhatt said that from henceforth the names of power pilferers, after being proved guilty in the appellate committee of the Board, would be announced in the media to deter them from indulging in further pilfering. However, names of those indulging in petty power thefts would not be disclosed, he said.

The chairman announced that in October the Board collected a record revenue of Rs 609 crore from various quarters. Bhatt attributed this to stepped up vigilance and said that efforts were on to curb power theft and reduce transmission and distribution losses.

In the last week of August, the Board detected power theft to the tune of Rs 3.24 lakh. Out of the 30,205 connections checked in various categories, irregularities were found in 2,368 cases.

Board Member (Administration) Vilasini Ramachandran, Labour and Employment Minister Bhupendra Lakhawala, Board Secretary A J Shah and Mayor Umakant Joshi were among those who attended the function.