While Delhiites continue to complain of inflated power bills and poor service, it has been revealed that the three power distribution companies have together spent Rs.4,528.86 crore in the past five years for improving their distribution system.
As per information provided by the Chief Minister to a starred question in the Delhi Assembly, while discom BSES Rajdhani Power Limited spent Rs.1,772.47 crore during the period from 2004-05 to 2008-09, BSES Yamuna spent Rs.1,166.39 crore and North Delhi Power Limited spent Rs. 1,590 crore in the same period.
While the spending of these discoms on this head was Rs.844.49 crore in 2004-05, it rose to Rs.1,411.46 crore in 2005-06, came down to Rs.786.29 crore in 2006-07, dropped further to Rs. 570.77 crore in 2007-08 before rising sharply in 2008-09 when it reached Rs.915.85 crore.
This money was spent on installing meters for consumers, replacing electromechanical meters with electronic meters, replacing transformers and wires, stopping power theft, presenting plans, improving billing and system, and for reducing human error and expanding the system.
Interestingly, the information provided also reveals that while some of the discoms showed small amounts of profit in some years, they showed huge losses in subsequent years despite there being a marked decline in their transmission and distribution losses during the corresponding years.
For example in the case of BRPL, the figures reveal that it had a profit of Rs.52.34 crore in 2004-09, Rs.89.38 crore in 2005-06 and Rs.26.71 crore. But in the following two years it showed a loss of Rs.449.34 crore and Rs.108.45 crore respectively. This when the company’s transmission and distribution losses had showed a marked decline from 35.6 per cent to 30.9 per cent between 2006-07 and 2007-08 and then from 30.9 per cent to 21.76 per cent in the following year.
Similarly, BYPL also posted a loss of Rs.55 crore in 2007-08 despite its T&D losses also declining sharply from 42.26 per cent in 2006-07 to 33.42 per cent in 2007-08.
NDPL is the only power distribution company that has throughout the past five years shown profits.
