New Delhi: Warning of a cut in power supplies in the National Capital, state-owned NTPC Tuesday said Reliance Group owned distribution companies here have a history of payment defaults and their electricity supply would be curtailed if they fail to pay their dues of around Rs 368 crore by Monday.
After issuing notices to BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna on Saturday, NTPC Tuesday said that it is in trouble and unless its dues are cleared the company may have to stop power supply to these discoms.
"We are in a difficult situation. If we are not paid in time, we will have to regulate nearly 2,000 MW of power, we have (other) buyers for it," Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC, Arup Roy Choudhury said here.
BSES Rajdhani's last letter of credit was encashed on January 31, leaving a shortfall of Rs 27l.61 crore. There is a payment shortfall of Rs 96.07 crore on BSES Yamuna.
When asked for his comments, Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said: "This issue is between DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission), the discoms in Delhi and the state government, it is not for Power Ministry to comment but what we certainly do hope is that the dues rightfully in the case of NTPC should be paid as soon as possible."
Choudhury said the companies have a history of payment issues.
He said, "This is not the first notice on BSES. They have been constantly defaulting in their payment security mechanism and this time it is the outstanding dues also."
However, the company added that there are no payment issues with Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited, another discom which supplies electricity in the National Capital.
"Tata Power has been paying their bills in time, we never had a problem with them. With BSES this is the third time we are facing problems," Choudhury added.
"We do not have TPA (Third Party Protection Audit) with the Delhi government like other governments. The discoms (in other states) are saved by state governments through the TPAs, under which we get payment from the states under the state allocation," he said.
These bills, due to BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna, are for the amount of power consumed in December and billed in January to be payable by the end of January.
"For energy supplied in December, we paid Coal India in October and November and 75-80 per cent of the electricity tariff is cost of coal," Choudhury added.
NTPC said that currently there is no letter of credit available for the two companies. BSESRajdhani's last letter of credit was encashed on January 31, leaving a shortfall of Rs 27l.61 crore.
There is a payment shortfall of Rs 96.07 crore on BSES Yamuna. There are two components of electricity cost -- fixed cost and variable cost -- and both are regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Variable cost comprises cost of fuel, railway freight etc while the fixed cost components involve employee cost, cost of land and equipment etc. NTPC, last week, issued notices toBSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna on the issue of payment security mechanism and non- payment of outstanding dues to the state-run company.
The present allocation of power toBSES Rajdhani from NTPC stations is l,26l MW and for BSES Yamuna it is 811 MW.BSES Rajdhani distributes power to over 18.5 lakh customers in south and west Delhi, including Alaknanda, Vasant Kunj, Saket, Nehru Place, Nizamuddin, Sarita Vihar, Hauz Khas, R K Puram, Janakpuri, Punjabi Bagh, Tagore Garden, Vikas Puri, Palam and Dwarka, according to its website.
BSES Yamuna has 13.5 lakh customers in central and east Delhi, including Chandni Chowk, Daryaganj, Paharganj, Shankar Road, Patel Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mayur Vihar and Yamuna Vihar.
