Discom dues fall by 80% within a day of barring defaulters
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New Delhi, Aug 20: The outstanding current dues of states and Union territories to developers dropped 80% within a day of the electricity grid operator barring defaulting distribution companies from power exchanges for short-term purchases or sales. They fell to ₹1,037 crores on Friday from ₹5,100 crores after some paid up while others disputed their dues.
Restrictions on Karnataka and Telengana were removed just before midnight. Five states, including Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Rajasthan, remained suspended from trading on power exchanges till press time on Friday.
The current dues of Jammu and Kashmir are the highest at ₹435 crores, followed by Madhya Pradesh at ₹234 crores.
Besides these current dues, the power distribution utilities have accumulated outstanding dues of over ₹1 lakh crore, which are being settled as per a plan formulated by the Centre. Bihar, Manipur, and Jharkhand are among the states that have paid up dues, while Maharashtra said it was clearing them as per its regulatory commission's orders, sources said. Late Thursday, six states-Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Manipur-were allowed to trade electricity after they claimed no outstanding or disputed demands. Responding to a query sent by ET, the Andhra Pradesh secretariat said state distribution companies (discoms) have strictly followed rules and there are no dues pending to the generators. "On 18th August, Rs 412 crore were shown as dues to the generators in the PRAAPTI portal. As per LPS rules, the short-term access to the electricity markets was restricted by NLDC as per information in the PRAAPTI portal. However, these dues were already paid to the generators," the state government said. Prices on the real-time market (RTM) segment of the Indian Election Exchange on Friday shot up to the maximum permitted Rs 12 per unit against Rs 7 per unit on Thursday after the states mentioned above-pressed purchases. The average price in the segment also rose to Rs 5.46 per unit from Rs 4.16 per unit. The Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) had imposed the trading restrictions under the Centre's Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules, 2022, notified in June. Under these rules, a one-time relaxation was given to all discoms, freezing the amount outstanding, including principal and late surcharge, on the date of notification of the scheme.
The discoms were given the flexibility to pay the outstanding amount in up to 48 installments. The generation companies will not get any late payment surcharge on the frozen amount.