J&K owes whopping amount of Rs.9369 crores to power producers
The Jammu and Kashmir government owes a whooping amount of Rs.9369 crores to power producers despite taking proactive measures to enhance revenue realisation as well as strengthening infrastructure.
“The electricity distribution companies (DISCOMS) including Jammu Power Development Corporation Limited (JPDCL) and Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited (KPDCL) has over dues of Rs.9369 crores,” the Lok Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply, the Union Minister of Power said that the Jammu and Kashmir owed Rs.7945 crores to Central Power Generation Stations (CPGS) while Rs.1685 crore to Generators and Transmission Companies (Transcos).
In this regard, an official of PDD attributed these overdues to huge gap between power purchases and revenue collection. He informed that they buying electricity of worth more than Rs.6,300 Crores every year but the revenue realisation is around 2,700 cores.
In last three years, the Jammu and Kashmir has spent Rs.18,447 crore on power purchases.
In 2018-19 J&K spent Rs.6058 crore on electricity, the power purchase bills increased to Rs.6072 crore in 2019-20 and in 2020-21 Rs.6317 crore were spent on power purchases.
Another official said that number steps including installation of smart meters have been taken to bridge the gap between power purchases and revenue collection.
Keeping this in view, the JKPDCL and KPDCL have filed petitions before the Joint Electricity Regulatory commission proposing a hike in power tariffs.
As per the petition, the KPDCL has mentioned that in the year 2019-20, the cumulative revenue gap was to the tune of Rs.1604.95 crore while the same increased to Rs.5890.76 crore in the year 2020-21.
Similarly, the gap further increased to Rs.9898.63 crore during the financial year 2021-22 and at the existing tariff, the cumulative revenue gap will increase to Rs.13145 crore during the current financial year (2022-23).
“The proposed tariff would lead to increase in revenue by Rs.243.60 crore”, the petition said.
“It is submitted that the last tariff hike of 13.5 percent was approved by erstwhile J&KSERC on 07.10.2016. since then, JKPDD could not file tariff petition with tariff proposals because the positions of chairman and members remained vacant for about 2 years. Although erstwhile JKSERC was constituted later on but was wound up at the time of reorganization of J&K on 5th August 2019.”
J&K government has set a target to double the Hydropower Generation Capacity in the next 3 years from the existing capacity of 3500 MW.
“In this direction, 5 Mega Hydro-power projects viz Ratle (824 MW), Kirthai-II (930 MW) Sawalakote (1856 MW), Dulhasti-Stage II (258 MW) and Uri-I Stage-II (240 MW) having a total capacity of 4134 MW have been taken up for execution in collaboration with NHPC. The likely investment in these projects is Rs.34882 crore and on completion will make J&K power surplus. The delay in execution of the projects has been eliminated and the pace of execution accelerated,” the official document of the J&K government mentions.
It pertinent to mention here that the Union Ministry of Power has approved an investment of Rs.973 crore for the proposed 1,856 Mega Watt Sawalkote Hydro Electric Power (HEP) project in Jammu and Kashmir.
“GoI conveyed investment approval of Rs.973 Crs. (Nov.21 PL) for pre-construction activities of 1856MW Sawalkote HEP, the largest Hydropower Project in J&K, which will further boost Hydropower development in J&K,” National Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) said in a tweet.
Sawalkot project is a run-of-the-river project proposed on the river Chenab in district Ramban and Udhampur.
The NHPC in January 2021 signed an MoU with the J&K administration for developing Sawalkot hydro-electric project which has been delayed since its conception in 1984.
