Seeing the light

Chattisgarh476 Goa161 Gujarat649 Karnataka621 Maharashtra2,209 Orissa464 Pondicherry (UT)79 Sikkim56 West  Bengall713 Andhra Pradesh1,231 Punjab1,315 Source: Power Finance Corporation  The very fact that subsidies are being released (in fact, subsidies are being deposited with the utilities upfront by state governments like Andhra, which dole out free power) is a good sign and we have to thank the discipline imposed by the electricity regulators for that.  There have been periods when committed subsidies have not been disbursed, causing a back hole in the entire chain of generation, transmission and distribution.  Though the data from the Power Finance Corporation (across 70 utilities) does not match that collated by the Planning Commission, which counts just a handful of states that are not incurring commercial losses, it does not refute the fact that some state utilities have seen a turnaround.  The most dramatic turnaround has been in Gujarat, which shows a cash profit of Rs 649 crore in 2004-05 against a cash loss of Rs 343 crore last year. But more on that later.  There are other positive signs too. The combined cash losses of all states have reduced sharply from Rs 18,918 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 3,438 crore last year (2004-05), after touching a low of Rs 2,268 in 2003-04.  There is an improvement in profit/ reduction in losses across 36 utilities in 2004-05 (over the previous year) totalling Rs 2,718 crore, though this stands dwarfed by the deterioration in profits/ increase in losses in 29 utilities amounting to Rs 4,536 crore.  Here is something more to digest. Return on capital employed was