Cesc 1995-96 Transmission Loss At Rs 285 Crore

The company's T&D loss has been steadily on the rise in the past few years. A committee set up by the West Bengal government in 1993, headed by a former state electricity board chairman D K Bose had recommended a formula that suggested that CESC's T&D loss be kept within 14 per cent.

Based on this, the state government had granted the company a tariff increase with a stipulation that it must bring down its T&D loss (16.8 per cent in 1992-93) by one percentage point every year.

However, the company was unable to arrest the rising trend of loss. It rose to 18.8 per cent in 1993-94, further to 19.2 per cent in 1994-95 and to 19.9 per cent in 1995-96.

This is less than the national average T&D loss, which is just above 20 per cent, but the national average takes into account miles of rural electrification lines, which are high-loss in nature.

The rise has been for full two percentage points in 1993-94 over the previous year. It was restricted to an increase of just 0.4 percentage point in 1994-95. But things worsened last year with a 0.7 percentage point rise.

CESC earned an average of Rs 2.10 for each unit of energy sold in 1994-95. The loss of 1,041 million units of energy in 1994-95 caused a financial loss of Rs 219 crore for that year.

The energy loss increased to 1162 mu last year when the earning per unit of energy had gone up to Rs 2.45. So, the resultant financial loss from the company's record T&D loss was a hefty Rs 285 crore, which was nearly 30 per cent higher than the previous year figure.

On the other hand, the company has shown an alarming increase in its sundry debtors for supply of electricity. The total sundry debt figure has jumped from Rs 220 crore in 1994-95 to Rs 330 crore in 1995-96.

The company's revenue from sale of electricity during the year went up by Rs 227 crore. Sources said that the company has been able to show a profit after taxation of almost Rs 87 crore. Yet, much of its sundry debt amount as shown in the balance sheet may not be realistic.

Some of this debt has been calculated on the company's assumption of a revision of fuel surcharge as calculated by it.

However, there is a sharp difference of opinion with the state power department on the surcharge calculations. Against the company's demand of increasing the surcharge from 18 to 42 paise, the state government has allowed an increase to only 24 paise.

This will seriously upset the calculation actually recoverable from its debtors.

The company has reduced its inventory on fuel by over Rs 4 crore - from Rs 14.16 crore to Rs 9.76 crore.

The company had to resort to heavy borrowing both for funding its capital projects and to meet the shortfall from increasing sundry debtors. Its total debt at the end of 1995-96 stood at about Rs 2,009 crore against Rs 1,435 crore in March, 1995.