Aptel technical member Ravindra Kumar Verma and judicial member Justice R K Guaba were neither impressed by Tangedco’s argument that it was facing acute financial crunch nor convinced to grant its request for additional time to raise a loan to settle the late payment surcharge
PUDUCHERRY: The appellate tribunal for electricity (Aptel), New Delhi, has directed the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to pay 50 per cent of the late payment surcharge of Rs 168.68 crore as on May 20 to DB Power Limited in two equal parts — first part to be paid within a week (order passed on June 8) and the second part to be paid within the week following that.
Aptel also pulled up Tangedco for dragging the issue without appearing before it for the trial and insisted the Tangedco’s financial controller V Kasi to submit a report outlining the reasons for not appearing to fix accountability on the additional burden on Tangedco due to the delay.
Aptel technical member Ravindra Kumar Verma and judicial member Justice R K Guaba were neither impressed by Tangedco’s argument that it was facing acute financial crunch nor convinced to grant its request for additional time to raise a loan to settle the late payment surcharge. Tangedco did not deny or dispute the corporation’s liability towards late payment surcharge as claimed by DB Power Limited.
The members also directed the corporation to file a reply within two weeks outlining its roadmap to settle their liability in future — particularly the existing liability on account of late payment surcharge to the appellant (DB Power Limited).
“We would expect our order to be scrupulously abided by the respondent Tangedco with no provision for coming up for any modification of the timelines. The respondent Tangedco will also be obliged to submit formal reports in the registry at the end of the next week and also at the end of the week following thereafter with regard to compliance with the interim directions for part payment,” said the members and posted the matter for hearing on July 13.
Source: TNN
