Govt to Offer Rebate to Discoms for Covid-19 Lockdown Period

With an aim to provide relief to cash strapped power distribution companies (Discoms), the government has taken a slew of measures to help them, including providing a rebate for the lockdown period amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The power ministry’s move is in line with the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement on May 13, 2020, under the Atmanirbhar Bharat special economic and comprehensive package including therein the liquidity infusion by PFC/REC of Rs 90,000 crore to Discoms against receivables and loans to be given against state guarantees for discharging liabilities of Discoms to power Generating companies (Gencos), and also giving a rebate to Discoms by central public sector Gencos for passing on to the final consumers.

Thus, the government on Friday has directed to all the central public sector Gencos which comes under Power Ministry including their joint ventures and subsidiaries and central public sector transmission company to offer a rebate to Discoms for passing on to the end consumers for the lockdown period due to Covid-19 pandemic.

They will offer a rebate in the form of:

• Deferment of capacity charges for power not scheduled, to be payable without interest after the end of the lockdown period in 3 equal monthly instalments.
• They will provide a rebate of about 20 to 25 percent on the power supply billed to Discoms and the inter-state transmission charges levied by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL).

Meanwhile, the Power Ministry has asked the Central Public Sector Generation and PGCIL to take necessary action in this regard, including concurrence of respective Board of Directors (BoD) required, if any.

Recently, the Power Minister RK Singh has also informed that via a tweet that, “the government has also decided to waive off the fixed charges and interstate transmission charges (by power grid) against the power not drawn from NTPC, DVC and other CPSE for the period from 24 March 2020 to 17-05-2020.”