The Supreme Court on Thursday directed private power distribution company BSES Yamuna to clear by July 15 all its arrears pending against power generating/transmission companies since January 1, 2014.
As per a chart presented by BSES in the court, BSES Yamuna has to pay Rs 257 crore to the State and Central power generating units for the period between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2014.
After inspecting the list provided by BSES, the Bench headed by Chief Justice RM lodha said, “We are satisfied that the power distribution company (BSES Yamuna) should pay the amount outstanding as on June 30, 2014 to the generating and transmission companies immediately and in no case later than July 15, 2014.”
The list supplied by counsel for BSES showed that the Anil Ambani Group-run power discom owes Rs 195 crore to State generating companies and Rs 60 crore to Central power generating companies.
Among the State units, the major recipients would be Bawana Plant (Rs 64 crore), Indraprastha Power (Rs 48 crore), Pragati Power (Rs 48 crore) and Delhi Transco (Rs 35 crore).
The BSES Yamuna claimed it had cleared 94 per cent of the outstanding dues of the Central power suppliers. Of this, payment relating to NTPC (Rs 672 crore) and Power Grid Corporation (Rs 40 crore) was paid in full. This prompted other suppliers such as Damodar Valley Corporation (Rs 24 crore), Aravali Power (Rs 16 crore) and NHPC (Rs 12 crore) to raise non-payment of their dues.
The Bench, also comprising Justices Madan B lokur and Kurian Joseph, said, “Under the undertaking you had given on May 6, you have to discharge your liability as regards current dues. From January 1, 2014 there is no justification to not pay.”
Senior advocate KV Vishwanathan pointed out that the problem was with the DERC, which had yet not approved the regulatory assets. In addition, he pointed out that the tariff was not profitable for the company’s operation to be viable. But the Bench said, “That’s your headache. These are not excuses to be given…their chart shows that you have to pay. Whatever is payable by you must be paid. They cannot be made to suffer.”
ASG Tushar Mehta who appeared for Centre informed the Court that as per Government figures, the current outstanding dues stood at Rs 457.14 crore. In the list, he disputed to the figure of Rs 96 crore assumed by BSES Yamuna to be component of subsidy. However, a statement issued by BSES later suggested that if the amount of subsidy is factored in, BYPl will be liable to pay only Rs 161 crore.