Discoms owe Rs 4,911.07 crore to Delhi govt's power cos: CAG

Apex auditor CAG has pointed to outstanding dues of Rs 4,911.07 crore owed to the Delhi government's power generation companies by private discoms, forcing them to resort to heavy short term borrowings.
The performance audit report of CAG tabled in the Delhi Assembly today stated "Outstanding dues of Rs 4,911.07 crore recoverable from discoms adversely affected the cash flow of IPGCL and PPCL and the companies had to resort to heavy short term borrowings".
The report found that out of planned commissioning of six power plants of 3,340 MW capacity by the end of 12th five-year plan, only 1,500 MW PPS-III, Bawana has been commissioned while other projects have been held up due to non-availability of either gas or land.

It also highlighted "deficiencies" in capacity addition programmes, excess consumption of fuel, non-achievement of generation targets and plant load factor norms, by the two power generation companies during the period 2011-12 to 2015-16.
The deficiencies were owing to less scheduling of power, unplanned major shutdowns and delays in repair and maintenance, it said.
The operational performance of the power plants was "sub optimal". Higher Gross Station Heat Rate of plants than the norms resulted in consumption of excess fuel worth Rs 125.92 crore, CAG report noticed.

The Finance Audit report of CAG pointed to loss of interest and blockage of funds due to "delay" in disposal of scrap and "lack of coordination" in procurement of transformers and commission of associated bays by Delhi Transco Ltd.

It also mentioned blocking of Rs 29.97 crore of funds and interest loss of Rs 2.52 crore due to "avoidable" payment to Pension Trust on account of TDS instead of claiming it from discoms.
Undertaking of major overhauling of Unit 2 of Rajghat Power House without incorporating any action plan to comply with norms of Delhi Pollution Control Committee resulted in the plant lying idle and "unfruitful" expenditure of Rs 15.09 crore, it added.