Union Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy ups the ante against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao urging him to clear the arrears for GENCO and Discoms immediately.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in the closing ceremony of ‘Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya - Power @ 2047’, a programme organised by the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy.
While addressing the event virtually, the Prime Minister said that states have outstanding dues of more than ₹1 lakh crore to power generation companies (GENCOs).
Apart from this, power distribution companies (DISCOMs) are supposed to get more than ₹60,000 crore from many government departments, and local bodies. He said that these companies are not able to get even the money that has been committed for subsidy on electricity in different states on time and in full. This arrear is also more than ₹75,000 crore. Mr. Modi observed that in activities ranging from the generation of electricity to door-to-door delivery, about ₹2.5 lakh crore is trapped.
One day after Mr. Modi raised up the issue, Mr. Kishan Reddy tweeted: “Further to the appeal of Hon’ble PM Shri @NarendraModi, I urge the Farmhouse CM to rise above politics and get the Telangana government to clear whopping pending dues of ₹7,388 crore to GENCOs and ₹11,935 crore to DISCOMs.”
The Union Minister also referred to the State Finances Audit Report for the year ending 31 March 2021 by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that made several observations on the performance of DISCOMs
“Even the CAG has flagged DISCOM performance in Telangana in its last public report (FY 2020-2021): i) Approx 70% of Telangana State’s PSU losses are because of two DISCOMs - TSSPDCL & TSNPDCL ii) ₹30,000 crore of net worth erosion has taken place in these two DISCOMs”
Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) and Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSNPDCL) are the two distribution companies of Telangana.
Telangana government owes the maximum to DISCOMs with an outstanding of ₹11,935 crore. Apart from this, it also owes ₹7,388 crore to GENCOs and is ranked 4th in GENCO debt after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Both of these add up to ₹19,323 crore.
