Gujarat tops discom ranking ninth year in a row, UP and Haryana progress

Loss-making discoms need to take corrective measures to access funds under Central schemes, says power minister R K Singh

Gujarat utilities have topped the ranking of power distribution companies (discoms) by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for the ninth year on the trot, with all five Gujarat discoms being the only ones rated A+, the highest ranking. With this, the state has grabbed pole position in all the nine rounds of PFC rankings.

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh discoms have progressed in their ranking since last year by jumping a rating above.

Releasing the discoms rating, union power minister R K Singh said the power sector will benefit from a fair and accurate assessment of the true position of the distribution sector, which in turn will help in assessing and improving its performance.

Among the lowest-rated discoms are Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Ltd, Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd, Manipur State Power Distribution Company Ltd, Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation and Jodhpur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd.

The common reason for their poor rating is high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses, high overdues towards generating companies and non-filing or delayed submissions of tariff petitions.

On the recently-approved Rs 3 trillion discoms reform scheme, Singh said, “The Scheme envisages providing financial assistance to discoms for strengthening and modernizing the supply infrastructure. States may access funds under the scheme for strengthening their distribution systems. Where the discoms are in losses, the States will be able to draw funds under the scheme only if they institute measures to reduce these losses. Therefore, the funding is linked to reforms linked. There has already been improvement in the performance of discoms. This scheme will take the improvements further.”