BHUBANESWAR: The Nesco has urged the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to approve the annual revenue requirement of Rs 2,939.30 crore for 2020-21 financial year. Proposing its annual energy requirement of 6567.03 million unit to be procured from the Grid Corporation of Odisha Limited (Gridco), the distribution utility has projected its aggregated technical and commercial (AT&C) loss at 21.04 per cent.
Estimating its revenue earning at Rs 2,623.17 crore, Nesco said it will face a revenue gap of Rs 237.27 crore which may increase to Rs 354.38 crore if the Railway prefers to avail power from other sources. “Bridge the revenue gap for the FY 2020-21 either through increase in retail supply tariff (RST) or reduction in bulk supply tariff (BST) whichever is possible or else direct the State Government to provide subsidy as per Section 65 of the Electricity Act 2003,” Nesco said.
Public hearing of the annual revenue requirement and tariff application of Nesco having power distribution business in five districts of Bhadrak, Balasore, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts was conducted by OERC at Balasore for the convenience of the consumers and other stakeholders. Submitting before the commission that it is having huge outstanding against low transmission non-industrial consumers, Nesco said most of the defaulting consumers after accumulation of huge outstanding dues are taking new connections putting the other one under permanently disconnected consumers.
Since it is suffering huge financial loss on account of low revenue collection efficiency, the distribution licensee requested commission to approve an arrear collection scheme for LT non-industrial category of consumers in line with one time settlement scheme as approved earlier in 2011-12. The utility sought the approval of the commission to allow the defaulting consumers to pay in 6 to 12 monthly instalments depending upon the outstanding and paying ability of the consumer. Such consumers may be exempted from paying delayed payment surcharge with certain percentage of waiver on outstanding amount, Nesco said.