Delhi power: State lenders approve Rs 1k-cr loan to Reliance Group firms

PFC, REC approve bridge loan of Rs 500 cr each

Two state-owned lenders to power projects have bailed out Reliance Infrastructure-owned Delhi power distribution companies (discoms) from a payment crisis threatening to pull the plug on the national capital's power supply beginning June.

An executive of Power Finance Corporation said, "Our board has approved a Rs 500-crore short-term loan request from Reliance Group-owned BSES firms. The loan has a tenure of a year." A Rs 500-crore loan from Rural Electrification Corp has been approved but BSES was yet to get confirmation, a person said.

The development follows a letter by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to the two lenders. The letter recognises regulatory assets (RAs), or dues from consumers, of Rs 11,431 crore to discoms as on March 2012. DERC assured the lenders a plan to recover the dues had been announced.

BSES Yamuna Power and BSES Rajdhani Power cater to 70 per cent of city's 3.2 million consumers. They were asked by the Supreme Court on May 6 to clear Rs 700 crore dues by Saturday for power bought from state-owned NTPC. The latter had threatened to cut 2,000-megawatt supply in case the dues were not received.

With the loan approval, the discoms would be able to pay the dues, sources said. A spokesperson said NTPC was yet to hear from the discoms on the dues.

Delhi discoms' RAs had jumped from Rs 936 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 19,500 crore in 2012-13. In March, DERC had decided to allow recovery of dues worth Rs 8,000 crore over eight years beginning 2014-15. The plan allows the discoms recovery of Rs 1,671 crore.