Acting belatedly on the demands of the energy distribution companies (discoms), the Odisha government has come out with a notification for settling the arrear electricity dues of Odisha Lift irrigation corporation (OLIC) and government offices in a cashless manner.
The unpaid electricity dues of OLIC from April, 1999 to December 2002, including the delayed surcharge and the arrears from the government offices, is totalled at Rs 156.72 crore and Rs 496.25 crore respectively.
"The claims of Gridco and the private discoms is to be adjusted against their payables to the state government on various accounts like servicing of loans and advances and payment of guarantee fees etc. It is decided that Gridco and the discoms would levy delayed payment surcharges at the weighted average cost of their borrowings from the state government at the rate of 12.52 per cent," said a finance department resolution.
The outstanding OLIC dues includes Rs 119.91 crore to Gridco, Rs 11.72 crore to Cesu, Rs 13.60 crore to Nesco, Rs 4.8 crore to Wesco and Rs 6.69 crore to Southco.
To help OLIC clear the dues payable to Gridco and discoms, the state government will provide notional subsidy to OLIC under non-plan budget of water resources department in the supplementary statement of expenditure, 2013-14.
Instead of cash payment of the subsidy, the outstanding amount payable to Gridco will be adjusted against the payables of the bulk purchaser to the state government as interest on CPA advance converted to loan.
Similarly, in the case of arrear dues of OLIC payable to discoms, the subsidy will be adjusted against the payables of discoms to Gridco instead of cash payments.
"The state government will adjust the subsidy payable to OLIC against the dues of Gridco to the state government and Gridco in turn will provide credit against their receivables from the respective discoms and the discoms will clear the outstanding dues of the OLIC," the resolution said.
For settling the outstanding electricity dues of the government departments, it is decided that the payment will be made from the provision in Supplementary Statement of Expenditure-2013-14 of finance department for the receivables of the state government from Gridco and the discoms.
The receivables from Gridco to be adjusted include Rs 52.08 crore as interest on CPA advance converted to loan, Rs 162.77 crore as principal of CPA advance converted to loan, Rs 35.34 crore outstanding guarantee fees up to March 31, 2012 and Rs 73.61 crore as interest on Rs 1,102.87 crore power bond. Similarly the receivable, ie, interest on World Bank loan from discoms include Rs 50.59 crore from Cesu, Rs 43.39 crore from Nesco, Rs 33.93 crore from Wesco and Rs 44.54 crore from Southco. The finance department has decided to extend support to Gridco to mitigate the impact of reduction in Retail Supply Tariff (RST) for the year 2011-12.
"The equity support of Rs 143.73 crore to be given to Gridco for reduced RST bill in 2011-12 shall be provided to Gridco as share capital or equity investment without cash outgo. The state government will make necessary provisions under non-plan budget of energy department in the supplementary statement of expenditure, 2013-14 for the purpose and the same will be adjusted against the receivables of the state government from Gridco," the finance department notification said.
The payables of Gridco to be adjusted include Rs 0.21 crore and Rs 143.52 crore towards principal and interest respectively on Rs 1,102.87 crore power bond.
