BHUBANESWAR: In a financial mess, the Grid Corporation of Odisha Limited (Gridco) has failed to service the securitised National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) bonds worth Rs 1102.87 crore for the last six years. The State Government had issued the tax free bonds to NTPC to secure the arrears of the power major upto September, 2001.
The arrear dues of NTPC was securitised in 2000 as per the tripartite agreement which the State Government had signed with the Centre and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The arrangement was made after Gridco failed to clear the power purchase bill of NTPC.
The bonds, which carried a coupon rate of 8.5 per cent, was scheduled to be paid in 20 equal instalments starting from September, 2006 after a moratorium period of five years.
While the State Government has met the payment obligation of NTPC to avoid deduction of the same from the Central plan assistance, Gridco has not been able pay back the securitised amount to the State due to default in payment of energy bill by distribution companies (discoms).
Besides, the State Government is yet to recover outstanding dues amounting to Rs 200 crore from the erstwhile Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL)-managed discoms Southco, Wesco and Nesco.
The three discoms had issued bonds worth `400 crore in favour of Gridco to offset their arrear power bills. The bonds, with 12.5 per cent coupon rate redeemable in seven years, were issued in October, 2000. Gridco had pledged the bonds with NPTC in lieu of dues of the Central power utility.
As the three discoms failed to repay the securitised amount, the State Government had to clear the dues under one-time settlement.
With an outstanding loan to the tune of `6400 crore till September last year, Gridco has been requesting Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to allow repayment of such statutory loan from banks and financial institutions through special appropriation.
With a huge loan burden and cumulative outstanding dues of Rs 2180.47 crore against the discoms, Gridco has been borrowing from open market to bridge the gap arising from non-realisation of dues from discoms.
The company, which borrowed Rs 1000 crore during 2016-17 from banks to cope up with cash deficit, has proposed to borrow another Rs 1200 crore during 2017-18 to meet the repayment obligations as well as payment of power purchase bills.
