Relief for now, power play on
8 Feb 2014 5:23 PM IST
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Residents of Delhi can breathe easy over the ongoing power crisis for a while. The Supreme Court on Friday stayed NTPC’s threat to cut electricity supply and asked the Centre- owned generation company to extend the deadline till 26 March for the Reliance-owned power discoms to clear their outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 300 crore.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">After NTPC sounded alarm and threatened to cut off power supply to BSES utility companies because of non-payment of dues, counsel of discoms approached the apex court on Thursday for urgent hearing. The bench headed by Justice S S Nijjar directed NTPC on Friday not to discontinue the power supply till the next hearing on 26 March, after making the observation that in the faceoff between the two companies, it is only the consumer who will suffer.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the distribution companies, submitted that Delhi government has not paid Rs 15,000 <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">crore which it owed to the private firms. Observing that Rs 300 crore which is to be paid to NTPC is a small amount for Reliance Infra, the apex court directed Anil Ambani-owned BSES to pay Rs 50 crore within two weeks. <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">‘You won’t go bust after paying Rs 300 crore. We are sure that you will be able to pay the amount,’ the bench said. However, the court did not specify by when the remaining dues, amounting to about Rs 250 crore, would be required to be paid to NTPC by BSES. NTPC said the two distribution companies (BRPL and BYPL) had failed to reinstate the payment security mechanism by opening a letter of credit (LC) in <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">favour of the generation firm as per the time frame in the power purchase agreement (PPA).<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">NTPC’s move comes after it was forced to encash the LC, opened previously by the discoms on 31 January, after they failed to clear their dues to the generator. The shortfall in LC is Rs 271.61 crore in the case of BRPL and for BYPL the LC amount is Rs 168.29 crore, according to NTPC’s notice sent to the two companies. In addition, there are pending payments of Rs 96.07 crore for the period of January 2014. NTPC supplies 1261 MW to BRPL and 811 MW for BYPL. It covers 74 per cent of power consumers of Delhi.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Delhi government had written a letter asking for suspension of licences of the Reliance-owned power discoms, if the power supply is not satisfactory in future. Meanwhile, appellate electricity tribunal authority interfered on Thursday and directed the Delhi electricity regulatory commission (DERC) to seek its advice before going ahead with the suspension of licences.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Dues to BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna include the amount of power consumed in December and billed in January to be payable by January-end. NTPC issued notice on 1 February that company’s condition is critical and it may have to stop power supply to these discoms, if dues are not cleared. NTPC chairman and MD Arup Roy Choudhury had said if dues were not paid in time, they will have to regulate nearly 2,000 MW of power.
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">After NTPC sounded alarm and threatened to cut off power supply to BSES utility companies because of non-payment of dues, counsel of discoms approached the apex court on Thursday for urgent hearing. The bench headed by Justice S S Nijjar directed NTPC on Friday not to discontinue the power supply till the next hearing on 26 March, after making the observation that in the faceoff between the two companies, it is only the consumer who will suffer.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the distribution companies, submitted that Delhi government has not paid Rs 15,000 <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">crore which it owed to the private firms. Observing that Rs 300 crore which is to be paid to NTPC is a small amount for Reliance Infra, the apex court directed Anil Ambani-owned BSES to pay Rs 50 crore within two weeks. <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">‘You won’t go bust after paying Rs 300 crore. We are sure that you will be able to pay the amount,’ the bench said. However, the court did not specify by when the remaining dues, amounting to about Rs 250 crore, would be required to be paid to NTPC by BSES. NTPC said the two distribution companies (BRPL and BYPL) had failed to reinstate the payment security mechanism by opening a letter of credit (LC) in <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">favour of the generation firm as per the time frame in the power purchase agreement (PPA).<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">NTPC’s move comes after it was forced to encash the LC, opened previously by the discoms on 31 January, after they failed to clear their dues to the generator. The shortfall in LC is Rs 271.61 crore in the case of BRPL and for BYPL the LC amount is Rs 168.29 crore, according to NTPC’s notice sent to the two companies. In addition, there are pending payments of Rs 96.07 crore for the period of January 2014. NTPC supplies 1261 MW to BRPL and 811 MW for BYPL. It covers 74 per cent of power consumers of Delhi.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Delhi government had written a letter asking for suspension of licences of the Reliance-owned power discoms, if the power supply is not satisfactory in future. Meanwhile, appellate electricity tribunal authority interfered on Thursday and directed the Delhi electricity regulatory commission (DERC) to seek its advice before going ahead with the suspension of licences.<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times">Dues to BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna include the amount of power consumed in December and billed in January to be payable by January-end. NTPC issued notice on 1 February that company’s condition is critical and it may have to stop power supply to these discoms, if dues are not cleared. NTPC chairman and MD Arup Roy Choudhury had said if dues were not paid in time, they will have to regulate nearly 2,000 MW of power.
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