Pay up by 31 May, Supreme Court tells BSES discoms

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani, among the three private power distribution firms in the capital, to pay their current dues to NTPC by 31 May. The apex court bench of Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar and Justice AK Sikri said the two firms were being asked to clear their current dues with effect from 1 January this year, based on the revised tariff for power purchase over which there was no dispute.

The court also said that if the dues are not cleared by 31 May, their order restraining NTPC from discontinuing or regulating their supplies will be lifted. Initially the court gave 14 days’ time to pay the dues. 

But when senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, who appeared for BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani, said they have moved an appeal seeking an extension till July, the court fixed 31 May as the date.

On the other hand, appearing for BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani, senior counsel UU Lalit told the court that unless his clients were paid the past outstanding dues by the government of Delhi it would be impossible to meet the current liabilities.

‘As a result of the denial of outstanding dues of Rs. 14,000 crores, I am placed in a precarious position,’ Lalit said, adding there was no dispute at all on one issue — that one of the outstanding amounts due to one of the two firms was Rs.5,206 crore. 

But the court sought to make a distinction between what was due for the past few months and what was historical.

During the course of arguments, BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani told the court that while the cost of power to them as supplied by state-run utilities had risen by over 300 percent in the past 10 years, their tariff for customers had been enhanced just by around 70 percent.