VIJAYAWADA: The clearance of dues payable to conventional and non-conventional power generation companies (Gencos) by the state power utilities is slowly improving with the arrears standing at Rs 3,712 crore as of April-end, as per the latest data available on Union Ministry of Power’s
Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators (PRAAPTI) dashboard.
While the state is said to be taking longer than other states to clear the bills, about 1 to 1.5 year on an average, the state power companies said that they were working to reduce the delay.
At the national-level, all the states cumulatively owe Gencos Rs 68,330 crore.
Even though the dues at the end of 2019-20 were around Rs 2,950 crore, they increased in 2020-21 due to COVID-19 imposed crisis and stood at Rs 4,500 crore by the end of 2020-21 fiscal.
Besides meeting the current Genco bills, the distribution companies (Discoms) have also been slowly clearing arrears. At the end of April (latest data), Rs 2,976 crore is to be paid to non-conventional generators and Rs 736 crore to conventional generators.
Although the cash-strapped state Discoms have been making efforts to clear the payments, Gencos, particularly renewable energy companies, raised the issue of delayed payments on several occasions in the last two years.
Besides AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Jammu Kashmir also take over a year on an average to clear the dues.