New Delhi, August 9: Against the backdrop of the government announcing a 90,000-crore rupees bailout for power utilities under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the latest data from the Ministry of Power shows that in June the total outstanding owed to PSUs by discoms stood at a whopping ₹ 44,780 crore. Data also showed that the cumulative dues owed to power-generating firms, including CPSUs, state gencos, independent power producers (IPPs) and developers of Renewable Power, stood at Rs 1.20 lakh crore in till June end.
Among Central Power PSUs, India’s largest power generation company, NTPC Limited, is the company that awaits clearance of the largest amount of outstanding dues. Although data was not available for particular CPSUs for cumulative outstanding dues, outstanding dues from power utilities to NTPC stood at ₹ 14,351 crore in June. Next in the list is Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), which is awaiting the approval from power utilities of duties totalling ₹ 7,707 crore.
Power utilities also owe ₹ 6,765 Cr to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), ₹ 5,680 crore to Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), ₹ 4,764 Cr to PowerGrid, and ₹ 3,434 Cr to NHPC Limited, respectively.
Discoms owe state gencos ₹ 24,520 Cr in dues, while they owe ₹ 42,289 Cr to IPPs and ₹ 10,135 Cr to RE developers, according to the data. The sum paid out in June by discoms against the outstanding was at ₹ 1,615 Cr.
The inability of discoms to pay for gencos and transcos has burdened the entire power sector, with the effect being felt in companies further down the chain, particularly in the thermal power industry. According to data released by the Coal Ministry, unpaid dues owed by the power sector to Coal India Limited (CIL) as of June 30 stood at ₹ 20,918 Cr. Coal India accounts for 80% of the coal supply to the power sector.
