Averting a potential blackout in the Capital, the Supreme Court on Friday directed state-run NTPC to maintain power supply to Reliance-owned BSES till March 26. As the private discoms faulted on payment of outstanding dues of Rs 96 crore, NTPC had threatened to snap power supply from February 11. This could have rendered 40 lakh homes in the city powerless. The court directed the BSES to pay Rs 50 crore to NTPC within two weeks.
With BSES claiming it would go bust and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) renewing its threat to stop power supply, the apex court did not have much time at hand when it began hearing the petition of BSES. A Bench of Justices SS Nijjar and AK Sikri arrived at an interim settlement by directing the private discoms to pay NTPC an amount of Rs 50 crore within two weeks. This was towards meeting the total deficit of Rs 96 crore due to NTPC. Meanwhile, NTPC was asked to continue with the supply arrangement till the next date of hearing.
Over 53 per cent of the electricity demand in the city is met by NTPC supply, which in turn has to pay its suppliers of coal. NTPC claimed that BSES has been deliberately defaulting despite recovering an annual revenue return of Rs 1,000 crore. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented BSES, refuted the claim and instead blamed the Delhi Government and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) for not implementing the promises given to it at the time when it entered the power distribution business in 2001.
The SC Bench, which was conscious of the impending power crisis facing the city, told NTPC, “Do not discontinue supply of electricity till March 26. We have to look at the problem of the consumers. In all this, the sufferer is the consumer,” the Bench said.
It, however, noted the total anarchy in the power sector in Capital as Rohatgi alleged that the promised returns to the discoms from the Government were over Rs 5,000 crore. Against this, its dues to power generating companies were little over Rs 1,000 crore. While Rohatgi pitched for re-nationalisation of power distribution system on profitable terms, the Bench added, “You are a business house. If the business is not profitable, you will go to some other field.”
Anil Ambani, who controls major stake of power distribution in the Capital through its twin companies BSES Yamuna (East Delhi) and BSES Rajdhani (South and West Delhi), argued that it would go “bust” if asked to pay the entire dues that had accumulated over eight years. The Bench quipped, “You won't go bust. There is no real danger to electricity being disconnected as you can make good any loss.”
The present allocation of power to BSES Rajdhani from NTPC stations is 1,261 MW and for BSES Yamuna it is 811 MW. The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity had directed DERC not to take a final decision on revoking the licences of discoms.