New Delhi: Being aware of the fact that several States and Union Territories (UTs) have overdue towards Power Generating Companies (Gencos), Union Power Secretary Alok Kumar disclosed this during a crucial meeting on Monday and asked representatives of States and UTs to pay the overdue at the earliest. The meeting took place against the backdrop of a severe power crisis across the country. Representatives from the Power Ministry, Power Distribution Companies (Discom), Power Generating Companies (Gencos) and representatives from State governments were present at the meeting that took place through video conferencing.
As per official data, the total outstanding dues of electricity distribution companies to power producers stand at Rs 1,21,765 crore as of May 2022. The government statistics in possession of ETV Bharat said that Tamil Nadu with Rs 19,442 crore top the list of such States, which has overdue towards Gencos, followed by Maharashtra at Rs 19,278 crore and Rajasthan at Rs 10,855 crore. The other States like Andhra Pradesh have overdue of Rs 7,538 crore, J&K Rs 6,863 crore, Jharkhand Rs 3,567 crore, Karnataka Rs 5,240 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 5,243 crore, Punjab Rs 1,326 crore, Rajasthan Rs 10,855 crore, Telangana Rs 6,889 crore and Uttar Pradesh has overdue of Rs 9,634 crore towards Gencos.
It is worth mentioning that the Central government has made several interventions to improve financial and operational efficiencies of Discoms linked to reform measures, including a Liquidity Infusion Scheme (LIS), additional borrowing of 0.5 per cent of GSDP to States linked to the power sector reforms. The government has also introduced additional prudential norms for lending by Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Limited and REC Limited based on the performance of utilities and Revamped the Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). In 2019, the Centre has enforced a payment security mechanism to give relief to Gencos under which Discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply. Significantly, given the Covid pandemic, the Centre had also waived penal charges for late payment of dues for the Discoms.
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