While Delhiites on Wednesday got a big respite from spiraling electricity prices with the AAP Government’s announcement of 50 per cent subsidy on tariffs, the scheme, however, is set to give heartburn to the Capital’s power distribution companies.
The reason is that the Government is in no mood to give the subsidy amount of Rs1,427 crore to the discoms — a move similar to the one taken in its previous tenure. Sources said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was adamant on directly sending the money to State-owned Delhi Transco limited (DTl) and generation companies in order to clear the longstanding debts of the private companies.
Giving out a power subsidy means the Government has to pay the discoms the discounted amount instead of the consumers paying it to them in the form of full tariff bills. In this case, the subsidy is no less as it would not only slash power tariffs by half but also will be availed by almost 90 per cent of Delhiites.
The whole scheme, which comes into effect from Sunday, is set to cost Rs1,497 crore to the exchequer. For March, it is expected to cost Rs70 crore, whereas, for the next financial year it is estimated to cost Rs1,427 crore to the exchequer.
The catch here is that the discoms, primarily BSES Rajdhani Power limited (BRPl) and BSES Yamuna Power limited (BYPl) would not get their slated subsidy money from the new Government as they already owe around Rs5,000 crore to transmission companies DTl and generation companies like PPCl and IPGCl. “The BSES-owned companies owe us close to Rs1,500 crore. The Tata Power has its bills cleared mostly,” said a DTl official.
During its last tenure, the AAP Government had done the same. Instead of giving the amount to the discoms, it paid the due to PPCl and IPGCl. “That amount was deducted from the outstanding payment the discoms owed to the two gencos.
The BSES, on the other hand, had kept repayment of Central owned NTPC dues as its first priority. Because of which it was asking the Government to either directly pay the subsidy due to them or NTPC,” said an official in the power department.
With summers coming and power demand being expected to shoot to 6,000 MW, the discoms are set to suffer as surge in consumption means that their power purchase would also increase. But, they won’t get the full payment by consumers because of the subsidy. The BSES has around 26 lakh consumers, who avail power up to 400 units while the Tata Power has over 10 lakh consumers under the two slabs.