VIJAYAWADA: The AP government has initiated the process for availing the liquidity support as announced by the Centre for Discoms under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. As per the eligibility, the state energy department is set to borrow a loan of Rs 6,678 crore, offered at an interest rate of 9.5 per cent for a period of 10 years with a three-year moratorium.
The officials are preparing the application to be sent to Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd, which along with Power Finance Corporation Ltd, will raise the money and loan it to the applicants. “We can avail a loan of Rs 6,678 crore as per the eligibility criteria. We are awaiting government guarantee for filing the application,” KVN Chakradhar Babu, APTRANSCO joint MD, told TNIE.
While the first tranche of Rs 3,334 crore would be released initially, the second tranche would be given only after the plan for implementation of the pre-conditions mandated, including fixing prepaid smart meters in all government offices, reducing aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) losses, bringing down the gap between average cost of supply (ACS) and average revenue realised (ARR) and others, is submitted by the state.
For the record, the power utilities have about Rs 18,600 crore dues to be paid to generators. Of this, State generating companies account for about Rs 9,000 crore and State Transco for Rs 2,000 crore. The remaining Rs 6,600 crore dues are to be paid to central generating and transmission stations, independent power producers and others.
The interest rates have been fixed at 8.75 per cent for three-year loans, 9 per cent for five-year loans, 9.25 per cent for seven years and 9.5 per cent for 10 year term loans. Last week, Power Finance Corporation Ltd CMD Ravinder Singh Dhillon said about eight to nine states have evinced interest to avail the liquidity infusion loans.