Power gencos' outstanding dues GAIL Group eyes 11.44L piped cooking gas on discoms up 57% in August connections in FY20

Among the central public sector power generators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 8,452.58 crore on discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 4,691.49 crore, NHPC at Rs 2,324.05 crore and others

NEW DELHI: The outstanding dues owed by distribution utilities to power producers rose around 57 per cent to Rs 78,020 crore in August 2019 as compared to the same month last year, reflecting a growing stress in the sector.

Distribution companies owed a total of Rs 49,669 crore to power generation companies in August 2018, according to web portal and app namely PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification and Analysis in Power procurement for Bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).

The portal was launched in May 2018 to bring a transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms (distribution companies).

In August this year, total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 59,532 crore as against Rs 34,464 crore in the same month in 2018.

Power producers give 60 days' time to discoms for paying bills for the supply of electricity. After that, the outstanding becomes overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most of the cases.

In order to give a relief to power generation companies, the Centre has enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply.

The data on the portal indicates that the outstanding as well as overdue amount have increased over the preceding month. In July 2019, the total outstanding on discoms was Rs 76,467 crore, while the total overdue amount was Rs 56,556 crore.

The July 2019 figures of dues and overdues have been revised upwards from Rs 73,748 crore and Rs 54,342 crore provisional numbers released last month on the portal.

Discoms in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu account for the major portion of dues to power generating companies, taking a longer duration of up to 820 days to make payments, the portal showed.

Among major states, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with 852 days to make payments, followed by Rajasthan (851 days), Haryana (849 days), Madhya Pradesh (836 days) Telangana (829 days) and Tamil Nadu (823 days) in that order.

Delhi takes 878 days to make payments to power generating firms.

Overdues of independent power producers amount to over 24.6 per cent of the total overdue of Rs 59,532 crore on discoms.

Among the central public sector power generators, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 8,452.58 crore on discoms, followed by NLC India at Rs 4,691.49 crore, NHPC at Rs 2,324.05 crore, THDC India at Rs 1,936.11 crore and Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 805.71 crore.

Among private generators, discoms owe the highest overdue of Rs 3,794.49 to Adani Power, followed by Bajaj Group-owned Lalitpur Power Generation Company Ltd at Rs 2,212.66 crore and GMR at Rs 1,829.68 crore. NEW DELHI: State-owned GAIL India Ltd and its affiliates have set a target to provide 11.44 lakh piped cooking gas connections in the current fiscal as they chase what now

looks like a highly improbable target of connecting one crore households with environmentfriendly fuel by next year.

GAIL and its joint ventures such as the ones that retail CNG and piped cooking gas in Delhi and Mumbai had achieved just 60 per cent of the target to give 11.25 lakh connections in the 2018-19 fiscal year, according to company's target document reviewed by PTI.

In March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to provide piped natural gas connections to one crore households "in the next four years". India had about 26 lakh households using gas received from a pipeline in the kitchen in 2015 and the government was keen for a massive expansion of piped cooking gas to help cut down the usage of subsidised LPG.

LPG thus freed can be used to replace kerosene and forest wood for cooking in rural and remote areas.

Later, the one crore deadline was pushed back by a year to 2020. But even this delayed deadline now looks improbable to achieve.

Together with other private city gas distribution firms, piped cooking gas users in India rose from 42.65 lakh in March 2018 to over 52 lakh a year later. This has risen to 54.17 lakh as on September 1, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

Industry officials said the biggest push for piped cooking gas use would come when entities that have been authorised by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) in two bid rounds in the last one-year start work. When they come on stream, such users will jump many fold, they said.

With a licence to retail CNG and piped gas to household kitchens given out for 136 geographical areas or GAS in

last one year, the coverage of city gas network would be 70 per cent of country's population, they said, adding household kitchens getting piped cooking gas would reach 5 crore by 2030 once full rollout is achieved in all the cities

licensed.

To achieve Prime Minister's target of 1 crore piped natural gas users by 2020, a massive 45

lakh connections will have to be given in one year.

But the biggest city gas distribution group GAIL is only targeting 11.44 lakh in year to March 31, 2020, according to the company document.

This target comprises 3.4

lakh new connections each in the national capital region and Mumbai and adjoining towns, and another 1.43 lakh in Pune.

This target compares to 11.02 lakh piped natural gas users in the national capital region and 12.77 lakh in Mumbai and adjoining cities, according to the GAIL document.

In 2018-19, GAIL and its affiliates had targeted 3 lakh connections in the national capital region (NCR) and Mumbai and adjoining cities. Against this, Indraprastha Gas Ltd issued a record 2.1 lakh connections while Mahanagar Gas Ltd enrolled 1.68 lakh new users.

Pune currently has 1.68

lakh users getting piped natural gas in their kitchens. Other cities where GAIL and its affiliates are targeting new users include Kanpur, Agra and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Indore and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Kakinada, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad in Telangana.