Power gencos outstanding dues on discoms rises 57 pc to Rs 73,000 crore in July

New Delhi: The outstanding dues of distribution utilities from power producers have risen by more than 57 per cent to Rs 73,748 crore in July 2019 compared to the same month last year, showing stress in the sector.

According to PRAAPTI portal, distribution companies owed a total of Rs 46,779 crore to power generation companies in July 2018.

The portal was launched in May 2018 to bring transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms (distribution companies).

In July this year, total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 54,342 crore as against Rs 30,331 crore in the same month in 2018.

Power producers give 60 days time to discoms for paying bills for the supply of electricity. After that, the outstanding becomes overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most of the cases.

In order to give relief to power generation companies, the Centre has enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply.

The data on the portal indicates that the outstanding as well as overdue amount have increased over the preceding month. In June 2019, the total outstanding on discoms was Rs 69,905 crore, while the total overdue amount was Rs 51,748 crore.

The June 2019 figures of dues and overdues have been revised upwards from Rs 46,412 crore and Rs 30,552 crore provisional numbers released last month on the portal.

Discoms in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka account for the major portion of dues to power generating companies, taking a longer duration of up to 820 days to make payments, the portal showed.

Rajasthan and Bihar top the list with 820 days to make payments, followed by Haryana (818 days), Andhra Pradesh (818 days), Madhya Pradesh (805 days), Telangana (798 days), Karnataka (792 days) and Tamil Nadu (791 days) in that order.

Overdues of independent power producers amount to over 23.57 per cent of the total overdue of Rs 54,342 crore on discoms.

Among the central public sector power generators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 7,778.38 crore on discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 4,693.48 crore, THDC India at Rs 1,954.24 crore, NHPC at Rs 1,613.84 crore and Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 786.69 crore.

Among private generators, discoms owe the highest overdue of Rs 3,201.68 crore to Adani Power, followed by Bajaj Group-owned Lalitpur Power Generation Company Ltd at Rs 2,212.66 crore and GMR at Rs 1,733.18 crore.