Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has ruled out any possibility of rise in power tariff in Delhi region as the “examination of audited accounts of the distribution companies (discoms) does not justify it”.
The discoms — Reliance’s BSES and Tata Power’s NDPL — have been asking for an increase in power supply rates due to rising power purchase cost. BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) account for 70 per cent of power distribution in Delhi city. The rest of the retail distribution comes from NDPL.
“On examining the books of discoms, we see no possibility of any increase in rates,” said a DERC official. He declined to say whether the rate would be the same or reduced. The government had yesterday asked DERC to stall the process of tariff order.
“The government has asked for our advice on the matter based on the representation of the discoms. The government will now tell us when and how to go ahead with the tariff order,” the official said.
In another development, BSES Yamuna Power refuted claims of earning profits.
“After incurring all expenses, BYPL lost Rs 186 crore. However, considering the accrued regulatory assets of Rs 262 crore of past years, it reflected Rs 76 crore profit in the balance sheets. This profit has only accrued in the books and is not an actual cash flow,” the company said in a statement.
It added that in the last seven years of existence, the discom had sustained its operations only on borrowings from various commercial banks and had over Rs 1,525 crore of outstanding debt.
“This precarious financial situation has occurred because of artificial assumption of surplus revenue by regulators based on unrealistic lower power purchase estimates,” said the company.
The regulators assumed that in the past fiscal the average power purchase cost for BYPL would be Rs 2.45 a unit, whereas BYPL had paid Rs 3.19 a unit, thus incurring additional unrealised cost of Rs 421.38 crore.
