VIJAYAWADA: Special Chief Secretary (Energy) K Vijayanand said Andhra Pradesh Discoms restarted trading on electricity exchange from 00 hours of August 19 after the PRAAPTI portal authorities were informed of the payment of dues on August 5 itself and subsequently restrictions on short term access to electricity markets were removed.
AP figured in the list of 13 States that were penalised for not clearing their dues to the generating companies and barred from spot market trading. However, officials acted swiftly and communicated the status of payment to the authorities concerned.
In a statement issued on Friday, Vijayanand made it clear that there were no outstanding dues pending from AP Discoms as shown in PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators) Portal on August 18. The first installment of Rs 1,407 crore was paid to the generators on August 5, 2022 under the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS). “There are no dues pending as on date to the generators. The second instalment under the LPS scheme is going to be due on September 5, 2022,” he asserted.
Further clarifying on the issue, Vijayanand said the Ministry of Power through a notification dated June 3, 2022, has formulated the Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules 2022 for clearance of outstanding dues, including the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) up to the date of notification.
“These rules are applicable to outstanding dues of generating companies, inter-State transmission licensees and electricity trading licensees. AP Discoms have liquidated all the generator dues up to May 30 under the LPS scheme. The total dues that were covered under the LPS scheme are Rs 17,074.90 crore. As per the LPS scheme, all the generator dues are being paid in 12 installments by the financial institutions REC and PFC as direct disbursement to all the generators, who are covered under the LPS scheme. The first instalment of Rs 1,407 crore was paid to the generators on August 5,” he explained.
He said as per LPS rules, short-term access to the electricity market was restricted by NLDC as per information in the PRAAPTI Portal. However, these dues were already paid to the generators. Some of the dues shown in the PRAAPTI Portal were liquidated under the LPS scheme. The dues which were already paid to the generators were also shown as dues payable in the PRAAPTI portal, he elaborated.After reconciliation of dues of generators, the information was provided to the PRAAPTI Portal and curbs on the short term access to electricity market were removed, he added.