The total outstanding dues payable by state-owned distribution companies to power generators grew 23.8 per cent year-on-year, to reach Rs.1,36,966 crore on December 31, 2020.
Data relating to December 2020 was released on the PRAAPTI portal recently. Here are some highlights:
- The total “overdue” amount by discoms to power generators grew by 30.3 per cent to reach Rs.1,27,498 crore on December 31, 2020 from Rs.97,835 crore on December 31, 2019. Any amount that is due is deemed “overdue” if it remains unpaid for over 60 days, which is the grace period.The amount billed to discoms in August 2020 was Rs.14403 crore. Interestingly, this was 22.8 per cent lower than the Rs.18,664 crore billed in December 2019. The fall in amount billed by discoms can be explained by a combination of reasons. Power demand has generally been lower in 2020 as compared with 2019, due to pandemic-induced reasons. Power discoms are buying electricity from power exchanges when prevailing market rates are lower than the PPA-bound tariffs. Demand side management (DSM) practices are leading to lower peak demand.
- There was significant improvement in the total payment made by discoms to power generators. In December 2020, discoms cleared total dues of Rs.18,153 crore to power generators, up 19.5 per cent from December 2019.
| Payment position by discoms (Rs.crore) | ||
| 2020 | 2019 | |
| Overdue (as of December 1) | 1,27,539 | 96,222 |
| Billed to discoms in December | 14,403 | 18,664 |
| Payment by discoms against overdue (A) | 14,620 | 11,471 |
| Payment by discoms against outstanding (B) | 3,533 | 3,721 |
| Total payment by discoms (A+B) | 18,153 | 15,192 |
| Overdue, as of December 31 (C) | 1,27,498 | 97,835 |
| Outstanding, as of December 31 (D) | 9,468 | 12,825 |
| Total amount due by discoms (C+D) | 1,36,966 | 1,10,660 |
- In December 2020, around 81 per cent of the total payment made by discoms to generators was towards clearing overdue amounts. In December 2019, this metric was 75.5 per cent.
- It appears that discoms are doing well on clearing the outstanding amounts, which is to say, discoms, in recent months, have been clearing their dues within the grace period. The total outstanding amount as of December 31, 2020 stood at Rs.9,468 crore—nearly 26 per cent lower than the Rs.12,825 crore as of December 31, 2019.
(Note: PRAAPTI stands for Payment Ratification and Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators.)
