Haryana joins UDAY scheme, to save Rs 14,160 crore

Haryana on Friday became the eighth state to join the UDAY scheme for revival of power distribution companies and will save Rs 14,160 crore in the next three years.

With this, Rs 1.94 crore debt, or 45% of total outstanding debt of discoms in the country, is covered under the UDAY scheme. Power discoms have total outstanding debt of Rs 4.37 lakh crore.

"Haryana is the eighth state to join UDAY scheme. There are 18-19 states which had evinced interest to join UDAY. Haryana will save Rs 14,160 in the next three years under UDAY scheme," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on the MoU signing ceremony between Haryana, discoms and Union Power Ministry.

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"We are power surplus state but we were unable to provide electricity to people. With these two schemes UJALA, an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All, and UDAY scheme, we would be able to provide power to people," Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

"There are about 29% (transmission and commercial) losses in electricity sector in Haryana. We will reduce it to 15% by 2018," he said.

Under the scheme, Haryana will take over Rs 25,950 crore of debt of the total discom debt of Rs 34,600 crore outstanding on September 30, 2015.

The scheme provides for the balance debt of Rs 8,650 crore to be repriced or issued as state guaranteed discoms bonds at the coupon rate around 3% less than the average existing interest rate.

The annual savings in the interest cost to the state would be around Rs 1,040 crore under the scheme.

The reduction in aggregate technical and commercial losses and transmission losses to 15% and 2.5%, respectively, is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs 7,150 crore during the period of turnaround.

The state would gain Rs 2,100 crore due to various coal reforms under the scheme, while the demand side interventions like energy efficient bulbs will result in a gain of Rs 1,700 crore.

The scheme would allow speedy availability of power to around 2.85 lakh households in Haryana that are still without electricity.

On the occasion, Goyal announced the name 'UJALA' for the LED-based Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme, which is running successfully in over 120 cities across India.

UJALA is being implemented by state-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited. Over seven crore LED bulbs have been distributed under the scheme.