Clear power dues, PM Modi tells states
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the state governments to resolve the payment crisis that undermines the financial and operational viability of the power sector entities by clearing subsidies to distribution utilities (discoms) in time and ensuring that government departments and local bodies pay their power bills before the due dates.
Stating that unpaid dues to power sector entities — gencos and discoms — stood at a staggering Rs 2.5 trillion, he said states’ subsidy dues to discoms alone were over Rs 75,000 crore at last count. About Rs 60,000 crore is required to be paid by state government departments and local bodies to discoms for the electricity consumed by them.
The Prime Minister was participating in an event to mark the culmination of ‘Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya – Power @2047’ via video conferencing. He also launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme, the latest package to revive discoms, on the occasion.
The scheme has an outlay of Rs 3 trillion over five years, including 32% from the central budget.
It aims to reduce AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses at pan-India level to 12-15% and the ACS-ARR (average cost of supply-average revenue realised) gap to zero by 2024-25 by improving the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of all state-sector discoms and power departments.
