Discoms' outstanding dues to power gencos rise 48% to Rs 81,010 crore in October

Power producers' total outstanding dues owed by distribution companies rose around 48 per cent to Rs 81,010 crore in October 2019 over the same month last year, reflecting stress in the sector. Distribution companies (discoms) owed a total of Rs 54,654 crore to power generation companies in October 2018, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).

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

In October this year, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 67,143 crore as against Rs 39,338 crore in the same month last year.

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

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

According to the latest data on the portal, outstanding dues in October has decreased over the preceding month. In September 2019, total outstanding dues on discoms stood at Rs 82,548 crore.

However, the overdue amount in October has increased over preceding month of September. The total overdue amount was Rs 65,155 crore in September.

The September 2019 figures of dues and overdues have been revised upwards from Rs 69,558 crore and Rs 52,408 crore provisional numbers released last month on the portal.

Discoms in Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu account for the major portion of dues to power gencos, taking a longer duration of up to 913 days to make payments, the data showed.

Among major states, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with 913 days to make payments, followed by Rajasthan (912 days), Bihar (912 days), Haryana (910 days), Tamil Nadu (908 days), Madhya Pradesh (897 days) and Telangana (890 days) in that order.

Delhi, a smaller state, takes 939 days to make payments to power gencos.

Overdues of independent power producers amount to over 22.46 per cent of the total overdue of Rs 67,143 crore on discoms.

Among the central public sector power generators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 12,271.75 crore on discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 4,413.94 crore, NHPC at Rs 3,178.42 crore, THDC India at Rs 1,883.54 crore and Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 870.92 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 1,930.16 crore.