The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Reliance-owned company to pay Rs 40.35 crore to power supplier Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) towards settlement of current outstanding dues latest by May 31.
This is in addition to over Rs 788 crore which the two distribution companies — BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani — have to pay to NTPC by way of a separate court proceeding. This payment too had to be made on or before May 31.
The DVC had been crying foul over outstanding dues against BSES, which had refused to clear old dues accruing from October 2011 till December 2013. Bringing a contempt petition against BSES, senior advocate Harin Raval for DVC submitted that the situation was piquant as on one hand, the Court had ordered regular supply of power while on the other hand, the bank was on the verge of losing its bank guarantee for non-payment of money to Coal India limited.
The bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Kurian Joseph held that so far as current dues are concerned between January 1 till date, the company BSES Yamuna had an outstanding sum of Rs 40.35 crore against DVC. The bench ordered BSES to make the payment by this month-end. For BSES, senior advocate Shyam Divan argued that the company was “cash-strapped” as on priority the company had to meet the Rs 788 crore due to NTPC as it supplied more than 80 per cent of city’s power demand. On the amount due to DVC, Divan said some payments had been made.