West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL) has said that it would not be in a position to pay pending electricity duty to the government, as long it takes a decision on the subsidy being given to the state-run power utilities.
“We are not in a position to pay pending electricity duty of about Rs 500 crore. Since, the prices are not being increased, government also know that power utilities need some sort of subsidy. We are waiting for them to decide on the subsidy,” said Rajesh Pandey, chairman and managing director, WBSEDCL.
State power utilities are facing fund crisis as the Mamata Banerjee-led government is not in favour of a tariff revisions, followed by the rise in coal prices. According to sources, since July this year, WBSEDCL is not paying Rs 60 crore as electricity duty per month.
Meanwhile, WBSEDCL would plan to give electric connection to more than 15 lakh families this financial year.
“The Centre government has allotted Rs 2,000 crore to the state, as part of the power for all programme. Since April, we have given connection to 2 lakh below-poverty-line families and another 4 lakh families are in the line of getting a connection. And in the remaining months, we want to add another 9 lakh more,” Pandey said.
The firm would give new connections to BPL families, free of cost and to others at a rate of Rs 379.
He also said that to meet the rate of growth in power sector, the state has signed several power purchase agreements with several firms and from different projects, including some in Bhutan. In order to improve the customer service, the firm has already tied up with Singapore Power (SP), one of the largest power companies in Asia, for a technological collaboration.
“As part of the agreement our engineers are already taking training from Singapore. This is helping us in improving our efficiency,” he said.
Singapore Power has assets worth S$30.7 billion and owns and operates electricity and gas transmission and distribution businesses. According to international benchmark indicators, SP’s electricity grid in Singapore is one of the world’s best performing networks.
