VIJAYAWADA: As per Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report submitted to the State government, power generation in the State had decreased from 22,235 million units from 2011-12 to 19,359 units in 2015-16 mainly due to outages of power plants. Further, the total cost per unit had increased from Rs 2.94 in 2011-12 to Rs 4.34 in 2015-16.
As per Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA), Dr Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Plant Station (NTTPS) for the period 2011 to 2015 was to be supplied by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) 240 LMT (Stage I to III) and 51.86 LMT (Stage IV) of coal. Towards this, APGenco paid stage-wise advances. The company received coal from MCL by railways rakes to NTTPS. For timely placement of rakes as per annual contracted quantity (ACQ), the company was required to coordinate with railway authorities and MCL. If APGenco received less than 90 per cent of ACQ, it claimed penalty.
CAG observed that during 2011 to 2015, even though advances were paid by APGenco, MCL had supplied only 142.38 LMT (Stage I to III) and 30.7 LMT (Stage IV) of coal which was 59.33 and 59.20 per cent of the quantity to be supplied respectively. MCL claimed it was due to short placement of rakes by Railways.
CAG pointed out that APGenco, which was supposed to coordinate with railways with regard to rakes failed in its task, resulting in short delivery of coal. Though APGenco claimed Rs 231.99 crore during 2011 to 2016 towards compensation for short delivery of coal, the same was yet to be received from MCL.
Whenever APGenco did not receive the ACQ of coal from MCL, to meet the requirement of NTTPS, it used to divert coal from other plants -- KTPS (Kothagudem Thermal Power Station) and Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant (RTPP). With KTPS going to Telangana after the state bifurcation, APGenco, for the year 2014-15, to meet the requirement of coal at NTTPS, procured 27.61 lakh metric tonnes of coal from SCCL at a premium by placing order on July 26, 2014.
The order was placed without incorporating any clause for joint sampling of coal and underloading/overloading freight charges, no clause was incorporated for price adjustment, in case SCCL failed to supply the grades mentioned in the order. During 2015-16, without any purchase order/MoU, APGenco procured 63.5 LMT of coal from SCCL at a premium price.
CAG observed that APGenco had received 35.58 LMT of varying grades of coal valued at Rs 216.23 crore from SCCL and 34.44 LMT of ungraded coal valued at Rs 702.38 crore. It was observed in another FSA between RTPP and SCCL, a clause was stipulated that SCCL was not to supply ungraded coal and if it is supplied, it would not carry any basic price of coal and carry only other charges and statutory levies.
It becomes clear that the absence of such clause between SCCL and NTTPS, APGenco had to suffer a loss of Rs 918.61 crore. There are several more instances, where negligence on part of APGenco in monitoring the transportation and supply of coal from the company it is procuring fuel and lack of proper paper work had resulted in considerable losses to the tune of several hundreds of crores.
