The Delhi Government has refused to separately pay its subsidy dues to the debt-ridden Reliance-owned power discoms. The Government on Friday maintained that it would only adjust its subsidy dues with the discoms’ outstanding amount to be paid to its generation companies, namely PPCl and IPGCl. Although the BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna Power limited got a partial relief with the Supreme Court directing the NTPC not to cut power supply to them, the Government’s decision will still come as a major setback for the power utilities. To add to their woes, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal threatened to ‘throw out’ the BSES discoms and bring in new players if they failed to pay their dues
The Kejriwal-led Delhi Government seems firm on its intention of recovering outstanding dues from the BRPl and BYPl. The two power utilities together owe the Government-run power generation and transmission utilities a whopping Rs 4,000 crore. “Our decision stands the same. We will adjust the subsidy dues with the payments the two discoms have to make to IPGCl and PPCl,” said Ankur Garg, Special Secretary (power). The BSES on Thursday had written to the Government for giving the subsidy amount of Rs 216 crore to them or pay it to the NTPC directly. While the BRPl is supposed to get Rs 166.35 crore from the Government, the amount for the BYPl stands at Rs 95.79 crore.
Deepening the standoff between the Government and the BSES, Kejriwal threatened the BRPl and BYPl to be ‘thrown out’ of Delhi if they fail to improve their services and bring in new players as their replacement. Meanwhile, the Capital will now be saved from a widespread power blackout in the coming week as the Supreme Court on Friday gave the two power utilities two week’s time to pay to the NTPC. Even as the two distribution companies owe NTPC Rs 692 crore in total, the apex court directed the BRPl and BYPl to pay Rs 50 crore by March 26. Officials in the BSES informed that it would comply with the SC decision and make the payment to the generation company. However, in long term, the Government’s decision of adjusting its subsidy dues with the discoms’ dues on the gencos’ will come heavy on them. The power utilities have so far not got any positive response for loans from Power Finance Corporation and REC.