SHILLONG, MAR 11: Meghalaya has outstanding dues of a whopping Rs 470 crore which has to be paid to both public as well as private power companies with the monthly power purchased pegged at Rs 34.73 crore.
The revelation was made by none other than chief minister Mukul Sangma on the floor of the assembly on Tuesday as part of his answer to a call attention motion moved by the Garo National Council (GNC) legislator Clifford R Marak.
Sangma said, “The total outstanding dues against power purchase from 11 power companies have touched Rs 473.85 crore as on February 28 last.” The approximate monthly power bill against power purchase from these companies is about Rs 34.73 crore.
Sangma said the huge outstanding bills was because of the huge supplementary bills raised by the central power sector units which was the consequent of the final tariff order issued by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in accordance with their tariff regulation from 2009 – 14 with retrospective effect.
Sangma also informed the assembly that Meghalaya suffered a huge transmission loss of about 30 MW and the government had to bear the losses during power transfers.
Meghalaya government owes NEEPCO Rs 364 crore for power purchase followed by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited whose due is Rs 28.39 crore, the National Thermal Power Corporation at Rs 24.65 crore and National Hydro Power Corporation at Rs 21.23 crore, Sangma revealed.
Sangma also said that the Meghalaya government has to pay Assam Electricity Board Rs 14.6 crore for wheeling charges during which the transfer of power to the state was made through their grid.
The others pending dues include Rs 4.16 crores to Unschedule Interchange (UI, Rs 2.17 crore – Mittal Processors Private Limited (MPPL), Rs 2 crore – NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN), Rs 7.50 crore – Global Energy Private Limited (GEPL) and Rs 5.51 crore – ONGC Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC).
Sangma also informed that the Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Limited has short term liabilities worth over Rs 440 crore which was eligible for reimbursement under Financial Restructuring Plan of the Government of India whose last date of submission was July 31 last year.
Since the submission was not made on time, Sangma said the state government has taken up the issue with the union power minister to extend the deadline till June 2014 to enable the state to avail the reimbursement of at least 25 per cent of the total liabilities.
The frequent load shedding in the state has become a cause of concerns for the citizens especially the student community with the state facing a power deficit of up to 20-30% of its demand.- By Our Reporter
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