Aravali Power Company Serves Notice to BRPL & BYPL for Non Payment of Dues
Aravali Power Company Pvt. Ltd., Jhajjar has been supplying power to the BSES DISCOMs in Delhi, viz BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd. (BRPL) & BSES Yamuna Power Ltd. since 05.03.2011. The power allocated to these DISCOMs from APCPL is 445 MW (372 MW & 73 MW respectively) & average monthly energy bill is presently of the order of Rs. 87 Cr. (Rs. 73 Crs. & Rs. 14 Crs. respectively) for the current financial year.
The payments by the BSES DISCOMs had become irregular for quite sometime. The matter was brought before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, who in their judgement dated 26.03.2014 directed the BSES DISCOMs to ensure payments of all current energy bills w.e.f. 01.01.2014. However, despite clear directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the dues continued to accumulate. Today, the outstanding amounts are Rs. 961.58 Crs. (Rs. 695.25 Cr. & Rs. 266.33 Cr. respectively). In a meeting taken by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on 16.05.2016, both BRPL & BYPL had given plan for liquidation of outstanding dues based on which regulation notice issued by APCPL earlier on 06.05.2016 was withdrawn.
APCPL has to pay in advance to its fuel suppliers which constitute about 70%-80% of its monthly energy bills. If the above situation continues, APCPL being a single power station company is unable to meet any of its commitments inter alia including payment to fuel suppliers, debt servicing requirements and even payment of salaries to its employees. Under the circumstances, APCPL has no other option but to regulate power on the BSES DISCOMs. A notice for regulation of power supply has been served on the BRPL & BYPL which will deprive Delhi of 445 MW of power w.e.f. 00:00 hrs. of 05.09.2016.
