The West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) which had assured the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to make Rs 200 crore payment against its arrears by April 30, will not be able to pay up before another month.
The funds are planned to be raised through an issue of bonds to financial institutions.
The state government, which is to stand guarantee for the bonds, has just cleared the file. The Board will now resume its dialogue with various FIs for picking up the bonds.
The relevant file had been waiting for the signature of the state finance minister, Asim Dasgupta,for one month even as the anxious power department officials were wondering if the NTPC would start regulating its power supply to Bengal for failing to make the payment by April 30.
Dasgupta cleared the file only on April 26. It will take about a month to raise the money and pay the NTPC. Fortunately for Bengal, the NTPC is not applying any punitive measure for the delay.
But, for the WBSEB, the more immediate worry is the mounting arrears against its sale of power to CESC Ltd.
The minister for power, Mrinal Banerjee, has stated that the outstaning amounts to around Rs 750 crore.
Power department sources said that the sum is actually Rs 784.73 crore as on March 31.
This is made up of Rs 663.59 crore of actual arrear and another Rs 121.14 crore of late payment surcharge. Together, the sums add up to Rs 784.73 crore.
Asked for comments, a CESC spokesman said yesterday that they will not be able to check the figures immediately.
During 1999-2000, the CESC was billed a total sum of Rs 440.60 crore. It paid to the Board Rs 241.79 crore only.
Between October'99 and March, 2000, the RPG power utility made a payment of Rs 65 crore only while it received bills for Rs 199.05 crore.
During the last 12-month period, the CESC did not make any payment in December'99 and February, 2000.
The payments were as small as Rs 4 crore in March, Rs 6 crore in January and Rs 10 crore in October.
A payment analysis made by the state government shows that the CESC's arrears at the end of November, 1995 was a small Rs 5.96 crore.
The arrears jumped to Rs 62.43 crore at the end of November, 1996, which further rose to Rs 136.63 crore at the end of November, 1997, to Rs 426.51 crore at the end of November, 1998, and then to Rs 558.79 crore at the end of November, 1999.
The amount rose further to Rs 663.59 crore on March 31, 2000.
The cumulative billing and payment figures worked out by the West Bengal government reveals that the Board raised a total bill of Rs 1869.46 crore between December 1995 and March 2000. But, it received a sum of Rs 1211.83 crore only.
