Delhi government asks BSES to pay dues immediately

Reliance-Infrastructure backed BSES has been asked by the Delhi government to pay around Rs 1,300 crore in dues immediately, failing which stern action including snapping of power may take place. Top officials in government said the company had been told to clear the dues to two power generation companies run by the Delhi government within three days. Delhi government-owned generation companies Pragati Power Corporation Ltd (PPCL) and Indraprastha Power Generation Corporation Ltd (IPGCL) supply around 330 Mw to BSES discoms BYPL and BRPL which distribute power to nearly 70 per cent of the city.

"We have told the BSES to pay up the dues of around Rs 1,300 crore within two-three days as we are facing a severe financial situation," top officials told PTI. They said the both PPCL and IPGCL had been asking the BSES to pay up the dues for last one year but to no avail. The development came as state-run DVC said it may have to stop power supply to Delhi, as BSES Rajdhani Power (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power (BYPL) are yet to make outstanding payments to the company. When asked, a BSES official said the company was going through a difficult financial situation and that it was making "payments of current dues regularly and also liquidating the past arrears as and when possible." In December last year, both BYPL and BRPL had expressed its inability to clear dues to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore to various power generation and transmission companies citing severe fund crunch which led to possibility of widespread power cuts with NTPC threatening to cut supply to the city. The city government initially refused to help the discoms but later it agreed to infuse fresh equity of Rs 500 crore into the company. As per the understanding an amount of Rs 1,020 crore was raised, with contribution of Rs 520 crore in equity infusion by the Reliance Infrastructure. The fund was used by BSES to get a loan of Rs 5,000 crore from IDBI bank. City's power regulator DERC then had strictly told the discom to pay its outstanding dues to the power generation and transmission utilities by February one and had even threatened to take action if it fails to comply with the directive.