This AGREEMENT made at MUMBAI this 13th day of March Two thousand Seven.
BETWEEN
I. MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY LIMITED, a Limited Company, incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and having its Registered Office at Prakashgad, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400051, hereinafter referred to as the MSEDCL (which expression shall unless it be repugnant to the subject context or meaning thereof be deemed to mean and include its successors and assignees) of the ONE PART; AND
II. THE MAHARASHTRA STATE CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD. (incorporating the Vidarbha Co-operative Bank Ltd.) registered under the Bombay Co-operative Societies Act (Bombay Act vii of 1935) under No. 359/7 of 1961 on the 1st May 1961 and having its registered office at 9, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce Lane, Fort, Mumbai 400001, hereinafter referred to as the "Apex Bank" (which expression shall unless it be repugnant to the subject context or meaning thereof be deemed to mean and include its successors and assignees) of the OTHER PART.
"WHEREAS" the MSEDCL has expressed its desire to entrust to the Apex Bank, the work of collecting the bills for electrical energy supplied by it to its various consumers in urban and rural areas in the state of Maharashtra and also collection of their receipts such as service connection charges, energy security deposits etc and remittance of the amount so collected to the MSEDCL's Account with the Apex Bank at Mumbai, the Apex Bank has agreed to do so through its affiliated (Sub-Agents) District Central Co-operative Bank (hereinafter referred to as the District Banks) on the terms and conditions herein mentioned:-
NOW IT IS HEREBY AGREED BETWEEN THE PARTIES HERETO AS FOLLOWS:
1. This agreement witnesses that the MSEDCL has entrusted to the Apex Bank the following items of work with effect from 1st April 2007 and the Apex Bank has undertaken and shall perform the work through its affiliated District Banks, on behalf of the MSEDCL with effect from the said date in consideration of the service charges, remittance charges, etc. as specified in Clause 2.1 below. For carrying out the object of this Agreement, the Apex Bank may enter into sub-agency Agreement with the District Banks.
(i) Collection of energy bills by the Apex Bank or its Sub-Agents, the District Banks through their various branches from the L.T. [Low Tension] consumers for power supplied to them by the MSEDCL in Urban and Rural areas throughout the state of Maharashtra at the places within the area of operation of each of the District Banks, at the places specified by the MSEDCL for purposes of Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural, Street Lighting uses, Cinema, theater and Public Exhibition etc. as per bills sent by the MSEDCL to the consumers concerned.
The MSEDCL may, through its Executive Engineer-in-charge of the Divisions concerned, in consultation with Apex Bank and its affiliated District Banks, may add/delete to the specified places the names of the newly electrified villages/towns as and when necessary and the branches of the District Banks to which the same are attached.
(ii) Collection from the consumers includes service connection charges, deposit towards temporary or permanent service connection, as well as energy security deposits from the consumers.
(iii) Any other item of collection that may be mutually agreed to between the parties to this Agreement.
(iv) Transfer/Remittance of the amount collected as referred in 1(i), 1(ii) and 1(iii) above to the MSEDCL's Current Account maintained at the Head Office of the Apex Bank at Mumbai.
2.1 The MSEDCL shall pay to the Apex Bank / District Banks, charges for the service rendered towards the collection, remittance and Supervision of the amount at the following rates.
1.4.07 To 31.3.08 1.4.08 To 31.3.09 1.4.09 To 31.3.10
Service chargesUrban areaRural area Rs.5.25/per billRs.6.25/per bill Rs.5.50/per billRs.6.50/per bill Rs.5.50/per billRs.6.50/per bill
Remittance charges Rs.0.50 per Rs. 100 Rs.0.50 per Rs. 100 Rs.0.50 per Rs. 100
2.2 It is further agreed that MSEDCL shall pay to the Apex Bank supervision charges at the following rates.
1.4.07 To 31.3.08 1.4.08 To 31.3.09 1.4.09 To 31.3.10
SupervisionCharges Rs.0.25 per Rs. 100 Rs.0.25 per Rs. 100 Rs.0.25 per Rs. 100
2.3 The cost of the revenue stamps used by the Apex Bank and its Sub-Agents as well as the actual expenses incurred by the Apex Bank and its Sub-Agents on postage etc. will be borne by the MSEDCL.
2.4 At the end of each month, the District Bank shall prefer to the MSEDCL bills of remuneration giving the details of expenses on postage, revenue stamps, service charges and remittance etc. The MSEDCL shall pay the bills of remuneration as above, received up to 15th day of the following month from the District Bank, within 30 days from the 16th day of the month (i.e. total 45 days from the end of the month for which the remuneration has been claimed). If the MSEDCL fails to pay the bill for remuneration within above mentioned period of 30 days, the District Bank shall have the right to recover the said amount from the MSEDCL’s collection amount. The District Bank shall send the details of the amount recovered with its advice to the Executive Engineer of the Division concerned of the MSEDCL. In no case the District Bank shall recover the remuneration bill amounts which are not submitted and claimed from the MSEDCL up to 15th day of the month following the month to which it pertains nor the District Bank shall recover the remuneration earlier/before the end of 30 day period from 16th day of the month allowed to the MSEDCL for scrutiny and payment of the remuneration bills. The remuneration bills claimed and received after 15th day of the month shall be considered in the next month along with the subsequent month’s remuneration bills.
In case the District Bank recovers the remuneration bill amounts earlier/ before the end of 30 day period as above, the MSEDCL shall charge interest at the rate of 12% per annum on the amount debited/recovered earlier i.e. for the difference period between the actual date of recovery and due date of payment.
In case the remuneration paid by the MSEDCL within the 30 day period and in the mean time the District Bank has also recovered the same remuneration charges from the MSEDCL’s collection amount, the District Bank will have to refund these remuneration amount recovered from the MSEDCL’s collection amount immediately with interest thereon at the rate of 12% per annum for the period from the actual date of recovery to the date of refund.
2.5 The supervision charges to Apex Bank would be paid by H.O. of MSEDCL against invoice to be submitted to the Joint Chief Accounts Officer, Ways and Means Section, MSEDCL, Hongkong Bank Building, Fort, Mumbai, within two month after submission of invoice.
2.6 For the purpose of classification of area as Rural or Urban under this agreement, the area falling under the Municipal Corporation or “A” and “B” class Municipal Councils will be called as urban area and the area falling under “C” class Municipal Council and Gram Panchayat will be called as rural area.
2.7 The Apex Bank or the District Bank shall forward to the MSEDCL’s Executive Engineer concerned and also to the officer-in-charge of the Billing Centre(s), every day, a Daily Cash Collection Report (DCCR) showing the amounts collected by the Apex Bank or the District Bank on each day in the prescribed proforma of Daily Cash Collection Report (DCCR). The copy of this Daily Cash Collection Report (DCCR) to be forwarded to the officer-in-charge of the Billing Center in duplicate shall be accompanied by the two copies of each money receipt i.e. duplicate and triplicate copies of the receipts issued by the District Bank to consumers and MSEDCL’s part of Bill's stubs.
3. The prompt forwarding of Daily Cash Collection Report in duplicate along with duplicate and triplicate copies of Receipts and Bills stubs on a day-to-day basis would form an important functional element in the performance of this agreement in as much as it has a direct bearing on the future energy Billing cycle. Towards this end the District Bank will exercise reasonable diligence and send reports by post or personal messenger depending on circumstances. If at any time in the opinion of the Executive Engineer in charge of the Division, any District Banks Branch is not exercising due diligence or in case of persistent default on the part of any Branch of the District Bank in forwarding Daily Reports, the MSEDCL shall have the right to make alternative arrangement for Bill Collection in that area by giving 30 days' notice to the District Bank and the branch concerned with a copy to the Apex Bank.
4. The Apex Bank and the District Banks will be supplied with a printed receipt book by the MSEDCL, at latter's cost, and the Apex Bank or the District Bank shall pass receipts to the consumers on such forms alone. The receipts shall be printed in Triplicate/Quadruplicate. The MSEDCL will also supply to the Apex Bank or the District Banks at its cost, books containing the printed forms of the Daily Cash Collection Report (DCCR) referred to in the foregoing clause which the Apex Bank or the District Bank (or its branches) shall forward to the Executive Engineer and to the officer-in-charge of the Billing Center on the next working day positively along with Bill stubs.
5. The receipts issued by the District Banks or its branches to consumers will bear the signatures of the authorised official of the District Banks or its branches and the District Bank’s seal.
6. In respect of service connection charges, energy security deposits and other miscellaneous items of collection, the consumers will present to the Apex Bank or the District Banks the demand letters received by them from the authorised officers of the MSEDCL. Receipts will be issued to these consumers by the Apex Bank or the District Banks from the same receipt book used for issuing receipt towards energy bill collection.
7. Bills will be sent by the MSEDCL to the consumers directly from several of its Billing Centers in the following manner :
(i) In cases where the Bank is authorised to pass the receipts to the consumers from the quadruplicate receipt books so supplied to the Bank by the MSEDCL, the Apex Bank or the District Banks or its branches shall pass the receipts to the consumers from these receipt books. The bills shall be sent to the consumers in perforated three parts where the main part (upper part) having the billing details is meant for the consumers and out of the remaining two parts of the bill, one stub (middle part) shall be sent to the billing office along with the D.C.C.R. and duplicate and triplicate copies of receipt and other stub (lower part) shall be retained by the District Bank for its own record.
(ii) The MSEDCL has introduced Computerised Billing System throughout the state of Maharashtra and the bills are sent to the consumers in three parts i.e. the part of (1) Consumer, (2) Billing Unit and (3) District Bank. Where the MSEDCL has authorised to treat the bill as Bill-cum-Receipt, the consumers shall present the Bill at the concerned District Bank or their branch offices together with the amounts of bill payable on or before/after due date. The Bank shall affix revenue stamp wherever required on upper/main part of the bill having billing details. The Bank shall mark seal of Bank’s name and date and signature of the bill collecting official of the Bank on all 3 parts of the bill and shall record the amount paid by the consumer in figures and words along with collection entry number in DCCR of the day. The upper/main part of the bill shall be returned to the consumer and out of remaining two parts, middle part shall be sent to the concerned billing office along with original and duplicate copies of DCCR daily. The third part of the bill shall be retained by the District Bank or its branch for its own record. The place where the bill is to be paid shall be indicated on the face of the consumer's part of the bill. The cheque number, date and name of the Bank on which drawn shall be mentioned on all three parts of the bill. The used receipt books containing the quadruplicate receipts should be returned to the concerned Billing Office.
(iii) The DCC Bank will take all efforts to start computerized collection system for which the computerized receipt stationery alongwith the collection software will be provided by MSEDCL. Out of two copies of receipt, one copy will be issued to the consumer and 2nd copy will be retained by bank for record. The DCCR along with the receipt numbers shall be forwarded by the DCC Bank in soft copy form viz. Floppy/CD the concerned billing office daily as like manual collection system.
(iv) If the any of the District Bank/their branches take any unilateral decision about the changes in procedure or refuse(s) to accept/adopt the procedure and/or stop(s) /intend(s) to stop the bill collection work, the MSEDCL is free to withdraw the work of energy bill collection from the concerned District Bank or its branches by giving 30 days' notice with a copy to the Apex Bank.
8 (i) In case the existing arrangement of bill collection in rural areas through District Banks which have already been doing the work in a particular place, is found inadequate, the District Bank should on a request made in this regard by the MSEDCL, open a new branch or collection center in that particular place to meet the demand of the additional consumers. If the District Bank is unable to open a branch or collection center within a period of three months from the date of the request of the MSEDCL to that effect, the MSEDCL will be free to make any alternative/additional arrangement for bill collection in that particular area in addition to the existing bill collection through the District Bank.
8(ii) In a case of area covered by Municipal Corporation and by “A” and “B” Class Municipal Councils, the MSEDCL will have the liberty to assign the work of energy bill collection to any other agency. However, in case of area under “C” class Municipal Council or Gram Panchayat, before allowing work of energy bill collection to other agency, MSEDCL will inform this to concerned District Bank.
9 (i) The branches of District Banks situated in the Taluka places shall transfer collection to their Head Office on every Thursday and every Monday after retaining a balance of Rupees One Thousand only in the account. If however any of the Thursdays or Mondays happens to be holiday, then the transfer has to be done on the immediate next working day. The branches of District Bank other than at Taluka places shall transfer on each Friday or next working day after retaining a balance of Rupees One Thousand only in the account to the Head Office of the District Bank.
9(ii) The Head Office of the District Bank shall consolidate the information of such transfers received from its various branches and shall be on the same day or the next day, intimate to Apex Bank by telegram, telex or fax or e-mail the total amount of bill collections through all its branches for crediting the same to the MSEDCL’s Current Account maintained with the Apex Bank Head Office, Mumbai. The Head Office of the District Bank should furnish daily a statement to the concerned Executive Engineer of the Division and Superintending Engineer of the concerned Circle showing the date wise, branch wise collections transferred to the Apex Bank. The District Bank should not send cheques drawn in favor of MSEDCL to the Apex Bank as a means of remittance. The Apex Bank should positively credit the total amount of collections so received from the District Banks on the same day.
9(iii) In case of any delay in transfer of collections by the branch offices or the Head Office of the District Bank, interest at the rate of 12% per annum would be recovered from the District Bank, unless of course such a delay is found to be due to reason or reasons beyond the control of the concerned Sub-Agent/Agents. The procedure for lodging the interest claims with Apex bank will be as under:
(a) The concerned 'O' & 'M' Divisions/Circles/ Urban Zones of the MSEDCL would submit their interest claims to the respective District Banks. District Banks would settle these claims within a period of 45 days from the date of lodging of the claim by crediting the amount of interest to MSEDCL’s collection Account with concerned District Banks.
(b) If the District Banks fail in settling these claims within the period of 45 days from the date of lodging of the claims, MSEDCL’s office would forward these claims to its Ways and Means Section at Hongkong Bank building, Fort, Mumbai 400051, with a copy to Apex Bank.
(c) The Ways and Means Section will consolidate these claims and forward to Apex Bank immediately for settlement/payment.
(d) The Apex Bank would settle these claims within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of claims of the MSEDCL. If the claims are not settled within 45 days by concerned District Bank, the Apex Bank will have liberty to debit the said claim amount on the 46th day to concerned District Bank's account and credit the same to the MSEDCL’s current account.
(e) If these claims are not settled within 45 days from the date of receipt of MSEDCL claims received from W.M. Section, Mumbai, the W.M. Section shall recover the same from the bills payable to MSC Bank towards Supervision charges.
In case of dispute such as whether the delay in remittance was beyond the control of the concerned District Bank/its branch(s), the decision of the MSEDCL that may be taken in consultation with the Apex Bank will be final and binding. If the dispute is not settled within a period of 3 months, the MSEDCL shall be at liberty at its discretion to withdraw the work of energy bills collection/demand letters etc. from the concerned District Bank/its branch(es) after issuing a notice of 30 days to the concerned District Bank in consultation with the Apex Bank, without prejudice to its other rights under this Agreement, the MSEDCL shall have the right to recover such penal interest from remuneration charges/supervision charges payable to the District Banks/Apex Bank respectively.
10. If the credit to the MSEDCL’s account is by way of cheques deposited by consumers, the date of realisation of the cheques will be the basis for ascertaining the amount of transfer. The commission charged by any Bank for realization of the cheques will be borne by the MSEDCL. However, the branch of District Bank shall send the claim of the Bank commission to the concerned Executive Engineer of MSEDCL along with DCCR. The dishonored cheques shall be sent to the concerned billing office along with its claim immediately on its receipt.
11. On transfer of collection to the Head Office of District Bank, the branch of District Bank shall send the Memo Advice regarding transfer of collection to the Executive Engineer concerned and Officer-in-charge of the billing unit. On remittance of consolidated amount of all branches to Apex Bank, the Head Office of the District Bank shall send the advice with branch wise, date wise amounts remitted/repatriated to the concerned Superintending Engineer.
12. The collection accounts of the MSEDCL with the District Bank being non-operative accounts, no cheque book needs to be supplied by the District Bank to the MSEDCL and the amount collected on behalf of the MSEDCL shall be held in trust by the District Bank for the Apex Bank and the MSEDCL until the same are transferred to the MSEDCL’s Current Account with the Apex Bank at Mumbai as herein before provided. Interest will be allowed on such balances to the MSEDCL at the Apex Bank’s usual rate of interest in force from time to time.
13. [i] Service tax relating to Bill collection work will be reimbursed by MSEDCL to DCC Banks/ Apex Bank.
[ii] The DCC Banks should have the necessary Service Tax registration with Excise Authority and same should be kept valid time to time.
[iii] For re-imbursement of Service Taxes, necessary documentary evidence will have to be submitted .
14. This Agreement shall be deemed to have come into force from 01.04.2007 and shall remain in force for a period of 3 years i.e. up to 31.03.2010 subject to continuation for further period as may be agreed to between the parties hereto and on such terms and conditions as may be mutually agreed to. This Agreement is terminable by giving six months' advance notice, in writing by either party to the other.
15. The agreement entered by MSEDCL with Apex bank is binding on all DCC Banks being the governing body of all DCC Banks. However, list of DCC Banks that do not agree with this arrangement should be provided by Apex Bank to MSEDCL within 15 days period from the date of signing of the agreement.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the parties hereto have set their hands and seals to these presents on day and year first herein above written.
SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED BY
Shri V. R. Shiroorkar,
General Manager (Corporate Finance)
For and on behalf of
THE MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION CO. LTD.
in the presence of
1. Shri S.D. Talnikar, Jt. CAO (IF)
2. Shri S.B. Amberkar, AO (IF)
The Common Seal of
THE MAHARASHTRA STATE
CO-OPERATIVE BANK LIMITED
(Incorporating the Vidarbha
Co-operative Bank Ltd.) has been
Affixed hereinto pursuant to the
Resolution of the Executive Committee
Meeting of the Bank passed held on
day of in presence of..
(1) Shri N. D. Kamble, Director
(2) Shri Vasantrao N. Shinde, Director
both Directors who have signed this
Agreement and counter signed by
(1) Shri D.M. Mohol, M.D.
(2) Smt. Usha Rao, G.M.( Loans)
in token of attestation of the common
seal in the presence of ....
WITNESS :
1. Shri V.M. Bagwe, Dy.G.M.
2. Shri B.K. Chougule, Manager
ABOUT MSEDCL
