Karnataka Escoms' losses up 57.6% in FY13

Combined accumulated losses of all companies for the year stood at Rs 2,324 crore

The electricity supply companies (Escoms) in Karnataka have widened their financial losses during fiscal-ended March 2013 owing to lower than projected sales of electricity and lesser realisations.

Out of the five Escoms operating in the state, only one company has been making consistent profits, while the rest have reported an accumulated loss of Rs 2,324 crore for year-ended March 2013, showing an increase of 57.6 per cent over the previous fiscal. For fiscal-ended March 2012, the Escoms had reported a combined loss of Rs 1,474 crore, according to data available with Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC).

Karnataka has five Escoms engaged in the supply of electricity: Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom), Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom), Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom) and Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (CESC).

Among these Escoms, only Mescom has been making profits consistently and has shown an accumulated profit of Rs 71.44 crore for year-ended March 2013.

According to KERC, the Escoms had reported a total expenditure of Rs 24,737 crore during 2012-13 against the total revenue realised of Rs 22,250 crore. The combined revenue gap projected by the Escoms for 2012-13 was Rs 2,487 crore.

The total costs estimated for the year for all the five Escoms for a projected sales of 49,290 million units (MUs) was Rs 23,247 crore. The actual supply achieved by Escoms was 45,656 MUs at a cost of Rs 23,668 crore.

The major item of the costs incurred was on purchase of power at Rs 20,405 crore for procuring 56,794 Mus, which work out to Rs 3.59 per unit as against the provision of Rs 19,418 crore made in the Tariff Order for procuring 60,638 MUs at an average cost of Rs 3.20 per unit.

The expenditure incurred on power purchase would have been Rs 18,174 crore if the power had actually been purchased at Rs 3.20 per unit as assumed in the tariff order. Thus, the cost of power purchase was Rs 2,231 crore more than the cost assumed earlier which represented an extra cost of 48 paise per unit sold during the year. Thus, the increase in the cost of power per unit procured was the main contributor to the overall increase in the cost of supply during 2012-13.

The KERC’s analysis of the reasons for the lower per unit realisation shows that the sale of power to metered category of consumers including industries, commercial establishments, household consumers, among others, was lower than targeted and the quantum of sales to the unmetered category of consumers including irrigation pump set users and Bhagya Jyothi and Kuteer Jyothi (BJ/KJ) households was higher than targeted in the Tariff Order.

The combined sales achieved by the Escoms to the metered categories of consumers was 28,478 MUs at an average realisation of Rs 5.72 per unit as against the estimated 33,973 MUs at an average realisation of Rs 5.64 per unit. The sales achieved for the IP set users and BJ/KJ households were 17,177 MUs against the estimated 15,317 MUs for the year. The sales made to these categories amounted to 1,860 MUs more than the quantum estimated in the tariff order.