Giving a pulse of the poor financial health of power distribution companies due to non-payment of bills for the energy consumed, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has stated that the government departments and local bodies within the operational limits of Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited (TSNPDCL) owed dues of ₹820.89 crore till March 31 last year.
In its performance audit report, the CAG hauled up the distribution company for having revenue arrears of ₹1,232 crore till the end of last financial year, including ₹249.03 crore from other live services. It has pointed out that the company had failed to adhere to agricultural sales volume approved by the State Electricity Regulator Commission (SERCS) and did not claim the cost from the government for the additional units supplied, resulting in loss of ₹1,077.27 crore from 2011-12 to 2015-16.
On the distribution losses due to TSNPDCL’s failure to implement remedial measures, the CAG report observed that the company had suffered Rs.194.27 crore loss due to it during 2011-16. Further, it had neither collected the subsidy of ₹693.23 crore from the government for 2014-15 and 2015-16 nor implemented the full cost recovery tariff as it had received only ₹5,238.98 crore for the two years against the claims of ₹5,932.21 crore.
On the other hand, the CAG report rapped the distribution company for not ensuring supply for seven hours a day to all agriculture feeders though the subsidy was paid for seven hours supply.
About ₹1,176.8 crore was not spent on fulfilment of government objective of supplying seven hours free power to agriculture consumers even as ₹8,237.63 crore was paid by the government during 2011-16. Further, the auditing agency pointed out that Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited (TSSPDCL) had extended ₹116.8 crore undue benefit to commercial units located in the premises of IT infrastructure companies and IT/ITES firms, extension of power concession to non-IT/ITES companies and on other grounds.
The CAG report also pointed out that the State government/Industrial Infrastructure Corporation had suffered a total of ₹313.29 crore in nine cases as its financial interests were not safeguarded.
