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Payment of Rs 68 crore as a part of its monthly instalment of Rs 100.8 towards debt servicing saved Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt ltd (RGPPL) from turning defaulter on Augut 1. RGPPL has assured to pay the balance Rs 30.8 crore in due course of time.
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As reported by Business Standard last week, RGPPL had expressed its inability to service debt from August 1 for want of funds. RGPPL had brought to the lenders'notice that the generation from Dabhol project has been closed since July 15 and it has to recover Rs 118 crore towards the power purchase for April, May and June from the MahaVitaran (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company), which buys 95% of the power.RGPPL officer, who did not want to be named, told Business Standrd "The company has recovered Rs 48 crore of the total dues of Rs 118 crore from MahaVitaran. In addition to this, the company mobilized Rs 20 crore from its balance and paid a total of Rs 68 crore towards debt servicing to the lenders. We have receieved a relief for a moment. However, we have been making concerted efforts to restore gas supply to restart the generation."
The official said MahaVitaran has assured to pay the balance dues in the near future. "So far there has not been any communication from the Centre for the restoration of gas from KG D6 and from ONGC through GAIL. Lenders to the project have been insisting that frequent closure of the project will severely impact RGPPL's finances and thereby create problems in debt servicing," the official added.
MahaVitaran official confirmed the part payment of its dues. However, the MahaVitaran official said "We want an unterrupted power supply from Dabhol project. Currently, the demand is low due to rains and the load shedding has been near nil in Maharashtra. But the surge in demand after rains will change the scenario and RGPPL should restart the project the at the earliest.''
RGPPL has a total debt of Rs 9,000 crore from ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, SBI and Canara Bank and since its restart in April 2006 it has so far repaid Rs 4,000 crore. Company's annual outgo towards debt servicing is Rs 1,300 crore.
RGPPL needs a total of 8.5 million standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of gas to achieve 1,967 MW of generation. Of the 8.5 mmscmd, nearly 7.6 mmscmd is linked to KG D6 gas while 0.9 mmscmd is from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) through GAIL India. The project was closed down since June 6 till June 24 and later it was restarted from June 25 and was operating 250 MW up to July 15. However, the project has been completely shut down since July 15.
The company has incurred a loss of Rs 1,156 crore towards fixed cost alone during 2012-13 as there was a total generation loss of 9,053 million units (MUs). Moreover, the company has incurred a loss of Rs 156 crore towards fixed cost, following the generation loss of 298 MUs during April and May 2013. RGPPL's generation loss was 3,095 MUs in 2011-12.
