Discoms’ Dues to Gencos Rises to Rs 1.41 Lakh Crore in November

Discoms total dues owed to Gencos rose by over 35 percent YoY to reach Rs 1.41 lakh crore in November 2020 according to the PRAAPTI portal

Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) total dues owed to power producers i.e. generation companies (Gencos) rose by over 35 percent year-on-year (YoY) to reach Rs 141621 crore (Rs 1.41 lakh crore) in November 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 1,04,426 crore to Gencos during the same month last year.

During the month, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after the 45 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 1,29,868 crore as against Rs 93,215 crore in the year-ago period.

As per the portal, the total outstanding dues in November increased on a month-on-month basis as well. 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.

The data also detailed that Discoms in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Haryana and Tamil Nadu account for the major portion of dues to power gencos.

Further the overdue of independent power producers amounted to 34.01 percent of the total overdue of Rs 1,29,868 crore of Discoms in November. The proportion of central PSU Gencos in the overdue was 34.27 percent. Among the central public sector power generators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 19,215.97 crore on Discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 6,932.06 crore, Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 6,238.03 crore, NHPC at Rs 3,223.88 crore and THDC India at Rs 2,085.06 crore.

Among private generators, Discoms owe the highest overdue of Rs 20,242.74 crore to Adani Power followed by Bajaj Group-owned Lalitpur Power Generation Company Ltd at Rs 4,373.23 crore, GMR at Rs 2,195.12 crore and SEMB (Sembcorp) at Rs 2,168.45 crore.

The overdue of non-conventional energy producers like solar and wind stood at Rs 11,862.07 crore in November. 

For the month of September, it was reported that Discoms’ dues to Gencos had increased to Rs 1,38,479 crore during the month, witnessing a 28 percent rise YoY over the same month last year, having owed a total of Rs 1,07,930 Crore to Gencos in September 2019.