House panel raises concerns over high debt of power discoms
1 min read 17 Feb 2022, 09:52 PM ISTAs of January 31, 2022, the debt of power discoms towards central power generation stations, IPPs and renewable energy generators stand at ₹98,722 crore
PremiumNEW DELHI : Parliamentary Consultative Committee related to Power Ministry on Thursday discussed dues of power distribution companies and required financial discipline in discoms.
The committee raised concerns over high dues of discoms.
As of January 31, 2022, the debt of power discoms towards central power generation stations, IPPs and renewable energy generators stand at ₹98,722 crore.
If the dues to state gencos are also included, the total outstanding dues of discoms would be ₹1.6 lakh crores, said a statement from the Union Ministry of Power.
During the meeting the Power Ministry outline several initiatives to address the issue of surmounting dues and worsening financial performance of discoms, including line of credit based payment security mechanism, revamped distribution sector scheme, additional borrowing scheme among others.
The committee noted that power distribution remains the most critical link in the power sector value chain. It generates cash that feeds to the entire value chain right up to power generation and fuel supply.
The impact of any inefficiency or financial management within power distribution flows to all upstream players in the value chain which adversely affects their operations and financial viability.
In the meeting, it was informed that power sector is one of the most important drivers for economic growth and socio-economic development of a nation. The government has brought about a transformational change in the power sector over the past few years.
With total installed generation capacity of 394 GW including renewable energy capacity of 104 GW as of today, India has transformed from a power deficit to a lower surplus country.
It was noted that adequate transmission network has been created with enhanced inter-regional transfer capacity of over 1 Lakh MW and connecting the entire country into one integrated grid running on one frequency.
The country achieved 100% village electrification and universal electricity access to all the households with significant improvement in availability of power supply in both rural and urban areas. The availability of power in rural areas which was about 12.5 hours in 2015 has gone up to 22.5 hours and in the urban areas it has gone up to 23.36 hours.
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