Defaulting Sebs Face Power Supply Disconnection

The SEBs together owe the central power undertakings and power finance bodies Rs 9,500 crore.

The Union power ministry has agreed on this drastic step by the central sector power agencies.

The total disconnection will be preceded by regulation of supply to the defaulting SEBs.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Indian Railways too have been similarly affected by mounting dues from the SEBs.

While fresh coal supplies are not being made without advance payment, the railways are yet to implement a system that involves advance payment of full transportation charges.

The ministry has said the earlier method of recovery of dues out of central plan assistance to the respective states has not proved much of a success. Such deductions are made over a three year period while fresh outstandings continue to mount. As the oil industry has always demanded advance payment for supplies to power plants, it has no outstanding with the SEBs.

 

The Centres decision to allow its generataing companies to regulate and discontinue power supplies to defaulting SEBs is aimed at reducing the level of outstanding to within two months billing.

This will help fulfil the condition set by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) before fresh tranches of loans can be released.

Coal India and Indian Railways, however, which do not face any such pressures from foreign lending agencies, have not been authorised by the Centre to regulate or discontinue supplies.

Among the central power agencies, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has the highest outstanding of Rs 4,933 crores.

Rural Electrification Corporation comes next with an outstanding of Rs 1,319 crore.

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) occupies the third position with an outstanding of Rs 1,026 crores. It has two major debtors. Bihar State Electricity Board alone owes it Rs 757 crore and the West Bengal State Electricity Board owes it Rs 267 crore.

National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) is to receive Rs 953 crore from its debtors. Power Grid Corporation (PGC)s debtors owe it Rs 463 crore, while Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has been unable to recover Rs 321 crore.

NEEPCO has the smallest outstanding - Rs 247 crore. These are the figures for July 31. The total of Rs 9,263 crore includes a principal of Rs 5,323 crore, with surcharges and interests accounting for the remaining Rs 3,619 crores.

NTPCs defaulters include DESU (Rs 689 crore), UPSEB (Rs 977 crore), Bihar (Rs 504 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 394 crore), Rajasthan Rs 370 crore), Haryana (Rs 342 crore), Jammu & Kashmir (Rs 329 crore), Maharastra (Rs 267 crore) and West Bengal Rs 210 crore).

NHPC has three large defaulters - Haryana (Rs 267 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 169 crore) and DESU (Rs 105 crore).

Assam is the largest defaulter with NEEPCO with an outstanding of Rs 189 crore.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest defaulter with PGC with an outstanding of Rs 184 crore, followed by Punjab (Rs 47 crore), Jammu & Kashmir (Rs 33 crore), DESU (Rs 29 crore), Haryana (Rs 27 crore), Bihar (Rs 24 crore), Karnataka (Rs 22 crore), Andhra Pradesh Rs 20 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 17 crore).

The major defaulters with REC are Uttar Pradesh (Rs 424 crore), Bihar (Rs 245 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 226 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 210 crore).

There are three major defaulters with PFC - Madhya Pradesh (Rs 120 crore), Bihar (Rs 105 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 78 crore).