Review fin rejig plan for power discoms: Parl panel tells govt

A Parliamentary panel has suggested that the government review the financial restructuring package for state electricity power distribution firms as not many states have shown interest in the scheme.
The suggestion has been made by the Standing Committee on Energy, which submitted its first report on Power Ministry's Demand for Grants (2014-15) in Parliament today.
In the wake of many state electricity distribution companies (discoms) facing tough conditions, the ministry came out with a financial restructuring scheme for them.
The scheme had a total outlay of Rs 1,000 crore for the entire 12th Five-Year Plan period, which ends in March 2017. Later, it was increased and a provision of Rs 1,500 crore was made only for 2013-14.

"Now the government has provided an outlay of only Rs 400 crore for the current year as no funds could be utilised during the year 2013-14 due to non-filing of claims by the participating states," the report said.
Reduction of Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, in other words reducing the gap between average cost of power supplied and average revenue realised, is a condition to be followed under the scheme.

Citing that not many states have shown their willingness to avail of the scheme, the panel said it desires the "government may review and widen the scope of the scheme in order to cover more and more discoms".

Meanwhile, the committee has said the ministry's financial performance has not been satisfactory.
While scrutinising the Gross Budgetary Support for 2013- 14, the panel found that as against Budget Estimate of Rs 9,642 crore - later revised to Rs 5,000 crore - the actual utilisation was Rs 4,529.72 crore.
Observing that the financial performance of the ministry has been far from satisfactory, the committee said poor utilisation of allocated fund has become a "regular recurring feature".
The panel has also asked the ministry to improve its monitoring mechanism to ensure full utilisation of allocated funds.