PSU’s of MoP, MNRE Contribute Rs 925 Cr to Combat COVID-19

PSU’s of MoP and MNRE have pledged to contribute Rs 925 crore to PM-CARES Fund in support to all on-going relief efforts to combat the COVID-19 Outbreak.

The Public Sector Undertakings of the Ministry of Power (MoP) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) have pledged to contribute Rs 925 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) in support to all on-going relief efforts to combat the Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19).

The announcement was made by Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh via his twitter handle. Taking to social media the minister announced that the PSU’s have come together to contribute a total of Rs 925 crore to the fund. And that Rs 445 Crore will be deposited on March 31, 2020, with the remainder of the commitment (Rs 480 Crore) to be deposited in the first week of April.

We feel honoured to share that the Public Sector Undertakings of the Ministries of Power & MNRE have decided to contribute INR 925Cr to the #PMCARES fund with 445Cr being deposited on 31st of March and remaining in the first week of April.
Jai Hind🇮🇳@PMOIndia @narendramodi

— R. K. Singh (@RajKSinghIndia) March 30, 2020

Recently, it was reported that power producers’ total outstanding dues owed by distribution firms (Discoms) rose nearly 32 percent to Rs 88,311 crore in January over the same month previous year, reflecting stress in the sector. Discoms owed a total of Rs 67,012 crore to power generation companies in January 2019, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).

As per the data made available, the proportion of PSU Gencos in the overdue was 39 percent. Among the central public sector power generators, the NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 11,007.50 crore on discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 4,731.13 crore, Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 4,614.49 crore, NHPC at Rs 2,548.85 crore and THDC India at Rs 2,129.53 crore.

The central government has given three months moratorium to discoms for paying dues to Gencos in view of lockdown till April 14 to contain COVID-19 across the country. The government has also waived off the penal charges for late payment of dues in the directive issued earlier this week.

More recently, in the next spell of providing relief measures to the country’s ailing power sector amid lockdown due to coronavirus crisis, RK Singh provided relief to Discoms, with an aim to ease out their liquidity problems.

As per the government’s newly issued guidelines, the CPSU generation and transmission companies will continue to supply and transmission of electricity even to Discoms despite large outstanding dues to the generation and transmission companies. It further added that during the present emergency there will be no curtailment of supply to any Discom. Besides, the power ministry has also slashed the requirement of maintaining bank credits to 50 percent by Discoms as a payment security mechanism in lieu of purchasing power from Gencos till June 30, 2020.