Team News Riveting
The disruption in collecting bills coupled with fall in demand had resulted in aggravating fiscal stress of power distribution companies (discoms) as dues jumped by nearly 22 percent.
The outstanding dues owed by discoms to power generators rose to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in June 2020, which is a 22 percent increase from February 2020 and a 63 percent from June 2019, according to data released by PRAAPTI, a portal launched in May 2018 to bring in transparency in power purchase transactions between the generators and discoms.
As of June 2020, the outstanding dues were the highest for the Discoms of Rajasthan (Rs 34,971 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 18,077 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 13,694 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 11,399 crore), Telangana (Rs 7,180 crore), Karnataka (Rs 6,393 crore) and Jammu & Kashmir (Rs 5,865 crore).
The discoms of the 7 states accounted for 82% of the total outstanding dues owed to the power generators.
The dues of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala stood at Rs 169 crore, Rs 1684 crore, Rs 523 crore and Rs 368 crore.
By the end of July 2020, 67 percent of loans were sanctioned to various state discoms by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) as a part of the Rs 90,000 crore liquidity injection to the state discoms in the form of state guaranteed loans (to be equally funded by PFC and REC) under the special economic package announced by the central government in May.
Among the states that are availing state guaranteed loans under the liquidity infusion package, Uttar Pradesh’s DISCOMs have sought the highest quantum of loans from PFC and REC at around Rs 21,000 crore. The other major borrower is Telangana which has reportedly sought loans of Rs 12,000 core. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir are some other state DISCOMs that have reportedly sought loans under the liquidity package
