Discoms’ Dues at Rs 1.36 Lakh Crore in December, Down From Nov

Discoms total dues owed to Gencos rose by nearly 24% YoY to reach Rs 1.36 lakh crore in December 2020, however, the amount reduced from November.

Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) total dues owed to power producers i.e. generation companies (Gencos) rose by nearly 24 percent year-on-year (YoY) to reach Rs 136966 crore (Rs 1.36 lakh crore) in December 2020, according to the Power Ministry’s PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators) portal. Discoms owed a total of Rs 1,10,660 crore to Gencos in December 2019.

During the month, the total ‘overdue’ amount, which was not cleared even after 45 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 1,27,498 crore as against Rs 97,835 crore in the year-ago period.

According to the latest data on the portal, total outstanding dues in December dipped on a month-on-month basis. In November 2020, the total outstanding dues of Discoms stood at Rs 1,40,741 crore. The overdue amount in December 2020 has decreased from Rs 1,27,539 crore in November 2020.

A new break in the trend saw the outstanding dues decrease in December on a monthly basis. The portal shows that the total outstanding dues in November had increased on a month-on-month. In October 2020, the total outstanding dues of discoms stood at Rs 1.38 lakh crore. While the overdue amount increased from Rs 1,25,743 crore in October 2020.

As per the PRAAPTI portal, Discoms in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Tamil Nadu accounted for the major portion of dues to Power Gencos. The common culprits remained the same from November when the Discoms in these states were the biggest defaulters.

It is also detailed that the overdue of independent power producers (IPPs) amount to 32.14 percent of the total overdue of Rs 1,27,498 crore of Discoms in December. The proportion of central PSU Gencos in the overdue was 33.57 percent.

For IPPs, Discoms owe the highest overdue of Rs 16,878.25 crore to Adani Power. Whereas, in the PSUs,  NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 17,946.97 crore on Discoms.

In November, Adani was owed Rs Rs 20,242.74 crore, while NTPC had an overdue amount of Rs 19,215.97 crore.