Thanks to subsidies and pathetic internal resource generation, financial performance of the state electricity boards (SEBs) dipped further in 2000-01 with the commercial losses touching Rs 26,013 crore.
Gross subsidy to electricity consumers from the SEBs increased by 11.95 per cent to Rs 37,037.11 crore in 2000-01 from Rs 33,081.47 crore in 1999-2000.
While the subsidy for agricultural consumers went up from Rs 24,598.77 crore to Rs 27,083.47 crore during the last fiscal, subsidy for the domestic consumers increased to Rs 10,061.80 crore from Rs 8,671 crore in 1999-2000.
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The subsidy for domestic and agricultural consumers has witnessed a hefty 129 per cent and 74 per cent increase respectively during the period 1996-97 to 2000-01.
The average agricultural tariff, however, increased from 21.09 paise per Kwh in 1999-2000 to 28.48 paise per Kwh in 2000-01.
The gross subsidy per unit sales, which included subsidy for domestic consumers, agricultural consumers and on inter-state sales increased from 103.40 paise per Kwh in 1999-2000 to 108.40 paise per Kwh in 2000-01.
The financial performance of SEBs witnessed an all-round decline in the previous fiscal, according to the data collected by the Planning Commission.
While the cost of power supply for the SEBs went up from 283.80 paise per Kwh to 303.80 paise per Kwh, the average tariff increased to 212 paise per Kwh only from 199 paise per Kwh in 1999-2000.
This led to a further decline in recovery from 70.10 per cent in 1999-2000 to 69.80 per cent in 2000-01. The percentage recovery in 1996-97 was 76.70.
The gap between the average revenue realisation per unit of power and the average cost of supply went up from 50.3 paise per unit in 1996-97 to 91.8 paise per unit in 2000-01 reflecting the increasing scale of losses.
The trend in the internal resource generation of the SEBs, measuring cash flow, has been alarming with a rapid deterioration from a negative Rs 2,091 crore in 1996-97 to a negative Rs 13,093 crore in 2000-01.
The commercial losses of the SEBs including subsidies touched Rs 20,220.50 crore in 2000-01 as against Rs 18,226.11 crore in the previous fiscal.
Commercial losses without subsidy went up to Rs 26,013 crore from Rs 23,028 crore during the year.