West Bengal Power SuppliersSquabble Hit Calcutta Power Supply
The West Bengal State Electricity Board has threatened to regulate supply of power to CESC Ltd unless dues were cleared immediately. CESC has indicated that it would cut supplies to municipalities, state government offices and Calcutta Tramways Company if the state electricity board (SEB) carried out its threat.
If the SEB starts regulating the supply to make it match the bills cleared so far, it will amount to an over 50 per cent cut in supply. CESC's drawal from the SEB is likely to touch 2,200 million units in 1996-97 "" 200 million units in March alone, with the onset of summer. CESC, a power utility of the RP Goenka group, imports power from the SEB at four points: Howrah, Liluah, Kasba and Titagarh. The board is expected to cut the peak supply at Howrah and Liluah by 50 per cent, reducing the supply by 50 mw at each of the two points. The next in line will be Kasba, where the peak drawal is 200 mw.
This may be cut down to 100 mw. The Titagarh point receives 20-25 mw and may not be affected much.
CESC has said that the arrears fuel surcharge billed by the board cannot be paid before April. The state government has allowed the company to realise the arrears in seven instalments from the March bill, which becomes payable in April.
The board will be paid the arrears only after CESC recovers the arrears from its consumers. CESC has also indicated that the February bill will be cleared by March 15.
CESC, which had the best payment record among the SEB's consumers, has been defaulting on payments for about a year. The board says the company owes it Rs 83.78 crore till February 28 on account of regular monthly tariff bills and the arrears fuel surcharge.When the board had regulated the power supply for a week in August last year, CESC had said that it would be able to pay its bills only after the state government allowed a hike in tariff. The tariff has since been hiked.
The SEB says CESC is not clearing its monthly bills. For example, the January bill for Rs 34.78 crore, which was payable by February 20, was only partially paid till the end of last month. CESC paid Rs 15 crore towards the January charges while another Rs 13 crore was paid on account of the December bill.
The company, the SEB has alleged, has not been paying the enhanced portion of the fuel surcharge ever since the rates were revised late last year. This portion alone is Rs 4 crore a month.
CESC has informed the state government that various municipalities, Calcutta Tramways Company and government departments owe it Rs 104 crore, which is much higher than its dues to the SEB.
The Howrah municipality, which has not paid any bill for eight years and two months, has piled up an outstanding of Rs 31 crore. Calcutta Tramways Company's dues are Rs 26 crore. Various other municipalities owe CESC Rs 30 crore, while the collective outstanding against all government departments is Rs 21 crore.
CESC has indicated that it will cut supplies to all these defaulting organisations if the SEB started regulating the flow of its power.