``The arrears have grown to huge proportions and we are seriously thinking of tough measures to tackle this situation. We have recently recovered about Rs 150 crore from defaulters and are targeting another Rs 50 crore now'', MSEB chairman Asoke Basak said on Tuesday. ``Further, we have initiated energy accounting programmes in 17 industrial towns in the state to keep track of energy consumption as well as the corresponding revenue streams of MSEB. We will take further steps to tackle the recovery problem based on our findings in these programmes'', he said.

Speaking at aninteractive session between the state deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde and the industrial community, Basak said privatisation of distribution was the solution to the problems of default on payment as well as transmission and distribution losses.