Punjab: PSPCL facing financial crunch due to non-payment of pending electricity dues
Chandigarh, April 28: VK Gupta, spokesperson for the All-India Power Engineers Federation, On Thursday said Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) was facing financial strain due to the non-payment of pending electricity dues by various government departments.
Besides, PSPCL is yet to receive balance subsidy for the last financial year on account of free power to agriculture and subsidised power to other sets of domestic and industrial
consumers, added VK Gupta.
In the absence of timely support from the Punjab Government, PSPCL has been
forced to go for the short-term loan of Rs 500 crore even for the purchase of power in April this year.
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The pending payments of electricity bills up to March ending this year from 47 government departments to PSPCL is Rs 2,650 crore.
The biggest defaulter is the rural water supply connections whose frozen amount of over Rs 1,277 crore with more than 10,500 connections.
Similarly, the frozen amount of urban water supply connections with 3,900 connections is Rs 485 crore and the pending payments against the current bill of urban water supply amount to Rs 76 crore.
Local self-government owes the PSPCL more than Rs 431 crore. The departments which owe more than 95 crore each are health and family welfare, home affairs and justice, and water supply and sanitation. The defaulting amount against these six departments exceeds Rs 2500 crore.
The balance of Rs 150 crore is distributed among the remaining 41 government departments. There are three departments owing between Rs 10 and Rs 30 crore each.
Besides this, as per the PSPCL website, the pending subsidy of last year is Rs 7,117 crore. The PSPCL, in its annual revenue requirement, has worked out subsidy for the current financial year at Rs 13,929 crore. This amount does not include the additional subsidy for free 300 units for every household from July next announced subsequently this month
VK Gupta, spokesperson for the AIPEF, said the financial survival of the PSPCL
depended upon the timely payment of its dues by the Punjab Government.
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-PTC News
