SC reserves verdict on plea of two private discoms

Supreme Court today reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions filed by private discoms BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd seeking reliefs including relaxation in payment of dues to power generating PSUs like NTPC and Damodar Valley Corp.
The Reliance group firms also sought directions to the PSUs that they should not cut power supply to them on account of non-payment of dues as it would lead to outages in major parts of Delhi.
A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar reserved the verdict after lawyers for Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and power generating PSUs concluded their arguments in the case.

During the hearing, the bench said even the discoms are not denying the fact that they owe money to power generating firms.
Earlier, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram, appearing for the BSES firms, had said the discoms were facing "unviable" financial situation and the revenue gap could only be bridged by raising the power tarrif from 20 to 25 percent.
Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), which fixes the power tariff, had opposed the plea of the private discoms saying they have "buffered up" the losses.

"Tata Delhi Power Distribution Limited (TDPDL) is the third private discom which supplies power in Delhi. It also acts under the same so-called draconian regulatory regime and it has paid every penny to the power generating companies.

"This can be checked up with the lawyers (of PSUs). It is only BSES companies which are facing all kinds of problems. They have buffered up the losses. I can establish it from the records," the counsel, appearing for DERC, had told the apex court.
The BSES firms have said a major portion of the revenue was being spent in purchasing electricity from the government-owned power generating companies and the firm was denied "cost reflective tariff" from the regulator (DERC).