Delhi’s Reliance-backed power distribution companies may have exaggerated their liquidity crisis, the city’s power regulator has said after finding discrepancies in the audit reports of the two discoms.
Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has refused to accept the accounts submitted by BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna for the period between April and December 2011, and observed that the financial health of the companies did not appear as bad as being made out to be.
The regulator had directed the discoms to submit detailed reports of their monthly revenue generations and expenditure since April 2011 to keep tabs on their accounts. Unhappy with the submissions, DERC has directed the discoms to submit their accounts again.
After finding discrepancies in the audit reports of two discoms — BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna — Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has said that the power distribution companies may have exaggerated their liquidity crisis.
In an order passed on January 25, the regulator ticked off the companies pointing out to gaps in revenues that could have been eliminated if collection efficiency had been near 99.5%. The discoms said they would “respond suitably” after examining the observations made by the commission.
In its order, DERC said, “The commission observed from the information provided by BRPL and BYPL that in the case of BRPL, revenue collection during April and May 2011 was as low as 82.36% and 78.44% respectively. In April 2011, (BYPL’s ) collection was only Rs 175.42 crore which is about 40% of the average revenue collected in the other months of the financial year 2011-12… The above and other anomalies need to be examined and explained by the distribution utilities,” the commission noted in its order. The order also reprimanded the companies for “prima-facie unexplained discrepancies in the information relating to power purchase by both BRPL and BYPL”.
In response to the discoms’ assertions that a non-cost reflective tariff has left them unable to pay off their transmission and generation dues, the Commission has said: “…the gaps in revenue collection… could have been eliminated if collection efficiency had been near 99.5%. The above, coupled with other indicators such as large net cash surplus in December 2011 (Rs.158.40 crore in case of BRPL and Rs.164.72 crore in case of BYPL), appear to indicate that revenue realized by BRPL and BYPL in the current months is sufficient to liquidate the current outstanding dues from September 2011 onwards in respect of generation and transmission utilities.”
The commission has also asked the companies to make payment of dues to the power generation and transmission agencies so that there is no threat of discontinuance of power supply.
Source: TOI
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