Sources in the power corporation said the Corporation lost ₹20 crores every day during lockdown, leading to an adverse effect on its financial health
Patiala, August 23: According to the official report, the state government has failed to clear payment for power subsidies being given to various categories of consumers during the first 4 months of the current fiscal due to the economy being hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis.
The official documents revealed the state government has yet to pay ₹3,489.74 crore to Punjab State Corporations Limited (PSPCL) for free power. The state government had to pay ₹6,696.07 crore to PSPCL for the duration from April 1 to August 15. The government had, however, released only ₹2,384.76 crore to the power corporation, with irregular installments in each of the month, while also asking the power corporation to adjust electricity duty worth ₹267.37 crores and Infrastructure development fund worth ₹821.57 crores collected by the power utilities from consumers against power subsidies.
The total subsidy bill for the current fiscal stood at ₹16400.51 crores, which is more than 53% of the annual revenue requirement of the power corporation, including a carry forward of ₹5,297.55 from previous years. Sources in the power corporation said the corporation has lost 20 crores every day during lockdown, which led to an adverse effect on its financial health.
The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has issued orders stating PSPCL can impose full tariff in case of subsidy default. Neither the electricity duty nor infrastructure development fund, however, were utilized as envisaged. The government is, meanwhile, trying to implement direct benefit transfer of electricity (DBTE) for agriculture consumers, a scheme under which farmers get subsidies in cash against power used, irrespective of the actual power consumed.
There’s also another proposal being considered by the state government to fuel agricultural feeders with solar power to the use cost of power subsidies being provided by agricultural pump sets, a decision which is yet to be taken, however.
