Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government, after writing a letter to Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) advising suspension of the defaulting discoms’ distribution licences, has now forwarded it to the Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung, soliciting his intervention into the same.
‘BRPL and BYPL have alleged that they do not have adequate funds because of which they have been unable to pay NTPC for purchase of power. NTPC, which is a major supplier power to discoms, maintains that it shall not be able to supply power beyond 10 February,’ NTPC had said in a statement, earlier.
Interestingly, NTPC claims that it had been compelled to send similar notices twice before, in 2011 and 2012. In its latest notices to BSES (R and Y) on last Saturday. the utility company has said unless its dues are cleared, it would consider stopping power supply to the erring 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 on Tuesday. When asked for comments, power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, ‘This issue is between DERC, 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.’ Arup Roy Choudhury, however, said the Anil Ambani-owned discoms have a tainted history of non-payment.’ This is not the first notice to BSES. They have been constantly defaulting in their payment security mechanism and this time it is the outstanding dues also,’ he said.
NTPC said in its notice to the two discoms that the short fall in LC with effect from is Rs 271.61 crore in the case of BRPL and Rs 168.29 crore for BYPL and there are pending payments amounting to Rs96.07 crores for January 2014. It also said it would not regulate 1,261 MW of supplies to BSES Rajdhani Power Limited and 811 MW for BSES Yamuna Power Limited, if both companies are unable to pay the outstanding bill.