The aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of power distribution utilities improved year-on-year to stand at 20.93 per cent in FY20, according to a recently-released report by Power Finance Corporation.
The “Report on Performance of Power Utilities: 2019-20” newly released by PFC said that overall AT&C losses improved from 21.74 per cent in FY20 to 20.93 per cent in FY20.
The report covered 115 power utilities, excluding those in the private sector. Distribution companies included in the report also cover generation and distribution companies (GEDCOs), integrated utilities and power departments.
Other key findings of the report with respect to discoms are:
- Total borrowings of distribution utilities increased 2.8 per cent from Rs.5,00,022 crore as of March 31, 2019 to Rs.5,14,237 crore as of March 31, 2020.
- Aggregate net worth of discoms continued to be negative, touching (minus)Rs.36,792 crore, as of March 31, 2020.
- Aggregate losses of discoms fell to Rs.31,672 crore in FY20 from Rs.49,103 crore in FY19.
- There was a growth in tariff subsidy billed by discoms. This increased from Rs 1,10,989 crore in FY19 to Rs 1,19,921 crore in FY20.
- Gross energy sold by discoms increased from 10,01,396 MU in FY19 to 10,20,988 MU in FY20 – a rise of 1.96 per cent. However, Revenue from operations (including tariff subsidy billed) registered a higher growth of 4.52 per cent — from Rs. 6,24,836 crore in FY19 to Rs.6,53,060 crore in FY20. This is indicative of better revenue realization.
- There was also an improvement in subsidy disbursements by state governments. Tariff subsidy released by state governments as a percentage of tariff subsidy billed by distribution utilities increased from 89.21 per cent in FY19 to 94.65 per cent in FY20.
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The performance of transmission companies, inherently better than that of discoms, showed the following highlights:
- Transmission utilities earned a profit of Rs.2,134 crore in FY20 compared to Rs.1,533 crore in FY19.
- Net worth of transmission utilities increased from Rs 82,026 crore as on March 31, 2019 to Rs 87,828 crore as on March 31, 2020.
Speaking of another category of companies in the power value chain, electricity trading companies showed sharp improvement in their financials, though they continued to be loss-making. Losses of trading utilities reduced from Rs.8,502 in FY19 to Rs.3,660 crore in FY20.
Note: FY19 refers to the period April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. FY20 refers to April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. MU stands for million units or million kwh or Gwh.
