Karnataka has been spending a whopping ₹33,000 crore on power purchase an average annually under Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Power Minister Sunil Kumar informed the Legislative Council on Monday.
“All put together, KPTCL and Escoms have a debt burden of ₹38,973 crore till August end. This includes long-term and short-term loans taken for development works and power purchase,” the Minister, said replying to BJP member Bharathi Shetty.
Debt burden
Giving the break-up of the debt burden of power companies up to August 2022, the Minister said: “While KPTCL has a debt of ₹9,590.99 crore, BESCOM has a debt of ₹13,613.23 crore. The debts of CESCOM, MESCOM, HESCOM, and GESCOM stand at ₹3,536.25 crore, ₹1,282.38 crore, ₹7,480.65 crore, and ₹3,472.15 crore, respectively.”
Pointing out that annually ₹13,000 crore is towards the subsidy given for IP sets to 38 lakh farmers, the Minister said that 6.3 lakh IP sets have been included in the subsidy net after the BJP came to power. This is apart from nearly ₹700 crore subsidy given for Bhagya Jyothi and Kuteera Jyothi schemes, Mr. Kumar said.
“The State has been providing three-phase power for seven hours daily for IP sets of 38 lakh farmers. The number of beneficiaries has been increasing over the years. KPTCL and Escoms have started taking loans from 2002 and the loan repayment term ends in 2047,” he added.
