Good for customers: Praveer Sinha

Interview with CEO, TPDDL

Tata Power says it is not worried about the 50 per cent cut in power charges in Delhi from Wednesday. Its power distribution unit, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), serves 4.5 million consumers in the national capital. The chief executive of TPDDL, Praveer Sinha, spoke to Katya B Naidu about power subsidies and governments. Edited excerpts:

Is there a cause of worry that TPDDL will suffer losses if there is a rate  cut?
No. The move is good for customers. The Centre will pay up for the gap with subsidies.

Will you receive timely payments of subsidy? Or, will it become a regulatory asset on the balance sheet when rate orders get delayed?

We are already getting subsidy from the government for our customers who consume less than 100 units, which is Rs 1.20 a unit, and for those who consume between 201 and 400 units, which is 80 paise. The payments are always made in time, every quarter. We get around Rs 53 crore every quarter. After the rate cut, the annualised outgo would be Rs 800 crore. Of this, we will get paid around Rs 250 crore every year.

Do you think the rate cut is drastic and an unusual move to cover it with subsidy? Will the Delhi government be able to sustain power subsidies?

All state governments give subsidies. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh give huge subsidies and underwrite it to state distribution companies. The Delhi government paid around Rs 570 crore this year.

Power subsidy is a welfare measure, which is being given by states depending on  their financial strength. Chhattisgarh does not give a subsidy because it is power surplus and makes money from it. Subsides are actually good for consumption.

Do you think pilferage will reduce as power rates go down?

We have already reduced pilferage  from 53 per cent to 11 per cent. It is already the best in the country. There is no other distribution entity which has reduced this much in a short period of time as we did. We will continue to work on reducing power theft.