BY NAGESHWAR PATNAIK, Bhubaneswar, March 13:
Union power minister Piyush Goyal on March 9 expressed surprise over the revocation of licenses of the Reliance Infra managed three distribution companies (Discom) by the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

It is ironical that at this juncture when the DISCOMs were showing some performance improvement in FY 2014-15 after the Phailin devastation, in comparison to earlier years, the private DISCOMs have been dealt with a bloody blow on the face by revocation of licenses by the Odisha Regulatory Commission,” Goyal told Rajya Sabha.

Goyal expressed serious concern over the mounting losses of the State Electricity Boards (SEBCs).

As per the report prepared by the Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC) titled “The Performance of State Power Utilities for the years 2010-11 to 2012-13, the income (excluding subsidy received) of the SEBs (selling power directly to consumers) have increased about 18% from Rs 267560 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs. 317557 Crores in FY 2012-13.

At the same time subsidy received by these SEBs has also increased by 23% from Rs 30009 crores in FY 2011-12 to Rs. 36964 Crores in FY 2012-13. Bulk of the subsidy (about 98%) is received from the respective State Governments.

“Though the total financial loss (including subsidy received) have come down to Rs 68085 crore in FY 2012-13 from Rs 72381 crores in FY 2011-12, if the subsidy amount is excluded the loss has actually increased from Rs 102411 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs 105070 crores in FY 2012-13. In all 14 different SEBs of States / UTs have showed enhanced profitability in FY 2012-13, while 15 SEBs have shown decreased level of profit/loss in FY 2012-13,” the report said.

The accumulated losses (including subsidy received) has increased to Rs 286707 crores in FY 2012-13 from Rs 228434 crore from Rs 228434 crores in FY 2011-12.

Net worth has become further negative from Rs 46169 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs 81369 crore in FY 2012-13.

The SEBs have a mounting debt burden of Rs 442966 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs 507065 crore in FY 2012-13, it added.

Referring to the status of Discoms in Odisha, the union minister said. “This being the pan-Indian picture, the status of Odisha based distribution utilities are not as bad even without State Government subsidy. In the case of CESU (managed by Odisha Regulatory Commission since 15 years) the accumulated losses upto FY 2012-13 are Rs 1859 crore, with loans outstanding to the tune of Rs 1528 crore, while in case of the other 3 Private DISCOMs (NESCO, WESCO & SOUTHCO) the combined accumulated losses up to FY 2012-13 stands at Rs 2424 crore with combined loans outstanding amounting to Rs 1601.45 crore.”

The minister further observed, “However, point to be noted here that, after privatisation of the DISCOMs since 1999, the Odisha Govt. has not released any subsidy amount to the DISCOMs since last 15 plus years and power supply conditions in the State is much better than other States”.

State energy secretary defended the OERC’s decision to revoke the licenses of three private Discoms.

“OERC’s order is clear that three Discoms did not perform as per their wish list. Nor did they invest a single pie on beefing up the distribution network. Rather they depended on us tp pay salaries to the employees and for maintenance cost. There is large-scale discontentment among consumers. The matter is sub-judice”.

The Appallete Tribunal for Electricity will hear the appeal of three Discoms challenging OERC’s order on March 24.