New Delhi: As much as Rs 3 lakh crore of investment in a dozen power plants of the private sector is at risk of turning into non profitable assets (NPA) as states buying power have not been making payment for months, official data and sources have said.
According to data available on the ‘PRAAPTI’ portal of the Ministry of Power, 12 power generating companies belonging to firms such as GMR and Adani Group and public sector generators like NTPC have about Rs 41,730 crore outstanding from state distribution companies (DISCOMs) as of December 2018. Dues as on date run into an estimated Rs 60,000 crore, half of it being towards independent power producers in power sector.
The BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh has the most outstanding dues of Rs 6,497 crore, followed by Maharashtra at Rs 6,179 crore. Other states not paying power generating companies on time include Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. According to the portal, Uttar Pradesh takes 544 days to clear its dues while Maharashtra does it in 580 days.
Sources said the delay in payment is posing severe working capital issues at the private power plants. Delay in realisation of receivables from state distribution companies (DISCOMs) weakens the ability of project developers to service debt in a timely manner and leads to exhaustion of working capital in some cases, they said adding delayed payments risk projects being termed non-performing assets (NPAs) under the RBI’s new classification rules.
Bajaj Group-owned Lalitput Power Generation Company Ltd reportedly has been unable to clear salaries of nearly 3,000 staff because of pending dues of over Rs 2,185 crore from DISCOMs in UP. So acute is the situation that the company is unable to maintain requisite coal stocks.
The same sources also said 37,823 megawatt (MW) capacity in the private sector, which is being built at an investment of over Rs 3 lakh crore, is at risk due to delayed payments and run the possibility of being declared NPAs if timely repayment of bank debt is not made.
Out of the Rs 41,730 crore outstanding as on December 2018, Adani Group has to get Rs 7,433.47 crore and GMR another Rs 1,788.18 crore. Sembcorp has an outstanding payment of Rs 1,497.07 crore while state-owned NTPC has unpaid bills of Rs 17,187 crore.
PTI
