Hyderabad: Comptroller and Auditor General warns discoms of consequences

HYDERABAD: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that the electricity consumption figures of the agricultural sector were not available and warned the distribution companies (Discoms) that this will lead to several consequences. The CAG said that accurate data for claiming subsidy from the government was not available. The state government had tabled the CAG reports in the Assembly on Thursday.

The CAG said that the formulation of policies by the state government and the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) had led to absence of reliable data. It said that more important is that energy losses were calculated on the basis of total sales that included agricultural sales. The CAG said that the SERC had advised to in-stall new meters in freshly determined locations in every quarter and not to release new agricultural services without energy meters but the Disco-ms, however, did not comply with the same.

The Comptroller and Auditor General said while accepting that the state government’s policies might have caused excess supply to the agricultural sector, it may be noted that the state government did not compensate the Southern Discom for the excess subsidy. The CAG said that the fact remains that the Southern Discom had to bear an additional burden of Rs 1,744.56 crore.

Delay in ARR submission causes Rs 323.89 crore loss

The CAG said that due to delay in submission of Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) to the Electricity Regulatory Commission, the loss of revenue was Rs 323.89 crores. The Discoms reported continuous reduction in energy losses during the period from 2012-17. However, the CAG said that the losses were higher than the norm fixed by the State Regulatory Commission in all years. As a result, the southern Discom was burdened with an additional loss of Rs 1,306.76 crores.