More and more states are joining UDAY scheme, meant for revival of debt stressed power distribution companies (discoms) in the country
“Within 2 months of announcement of UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) scheme, more than half of the states of India are on board.
A total of 15 out of 29 states are on board for Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna,” the Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.
The minister said that ON Monday, four major states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra -- have agreed to join UDAY.
With a total of 15 states joining UDAY, 90 per cent of over Rs 4 lakh crore debt of discoms will be covered under the scheme.
The first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under UDAY scheme will be signed on Tuesday by Power Ministry, the Jharkhand government and state discom JBVNl.
He said while the Bihar Cabinet will consider and approve the proposal to join UDAY scheme tomorrow, the state councils of ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra have already given their nod to go for the scheme.
On being asked whether there would be restructuring of debt under the scheme, the minister explained that states will own the 75 per cent of debt and issue bonds to pare the loan.
The discoms will issue bonds with states’ guarantee to raise funds for repaying remaining 25 per cent of the loan and old debt accounts will be paid, he elaborated.
The states which have evinced interest for the scheme include Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.
The minister said there are some states which are not able to join UDAY because their utilities don’t have separate account for generation, transmission and distribution.
Goyal said Tamil Nadu is one of those states which have a single utility which is into generation, transmission and distribution.