WBSEB misses Rs 421cr central power funds

Cash starved West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) failed to avail incentives of Rs 421 crore under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) following the failure of its accounting department.

WBSEB understated its losses and failed to furnish the revised figures for one fiscal within the end of the next fiscal.

The reforms programme envisaged that on successful implementation of reforms WBSEB would not only achieve break-even by March 2003 but also would earn a positive return thereafter. The funds would have been provided under two heads "" investment and incentive.

In order to receive the incentive the board was supposed to submit provisional annual accounts for the period 2000-01 and 2001-02 by March 2003 to the government.

The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report remarked that the board however understated the losses at Rs 672.72 crore for 2000-01 by Rs 2182.07 crore.

It failed to revise the figures even after this gross distortion was pointed out in the audit.

The unaudited accounts for 2001-02 showed a loss of Rs 1,473.73 crore which was higher than the previous year and WBSEB was of the idea that it could not avail the APDRP incentive.

The board only managed to submit a re-assessed loss figure of Rs 2,013.92 crore and Rs 1,172.28 crore for 2000-01 and 2001-02 respectively in July 2003, which reflected a decline in loss by Rs 841.64 crore in 01-02 over the preceding year against which the board was entitled to an incentive of Rs 420. 82 crore "" but it had missed the deadline for submitting results and lost the incentive.

CAG also pointed out that installation of 132 / 33 KV station at Gangarampur lead to an unfruitful investment of Rs 11.78 crore. In addition, the delay in constructing 33 KV sub-station at Gangarampur led to a transmission loss of 57. 33 million units valued at Rs 12.61 crore.

Similar loss due to delay was also pointed out by CAG while procuring transformer. Delay in finalising the tender made the board miss the bid by Orissa Transformer Private Limited leading to an extra expenditure of Rs 43.92 lakh.