In a turnaround of financials of state discoms, like those of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, following government initiatives in the last one year, pending dues to wind energy companies have dropped to an average of four months from 13 months previously, industry.
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company’s (MSEDCL) dues have dropped from over one year to around six months now, while Rajasthan has seen a maximum improvement with dues falling to less than two months. Madhya Pradesh has also improved to around three months now, officials told media.
An MSEDCL spokesperson confirmed that the discom’s total dues have now fallen to Rs 440 crore from Rs 2,300 crore in February 2017. The company made last the payments in April but not to all companies. “We have cleared a majority of the Rs 2,300-crore pending dues, now around Rs 440 crore is pending to 320 generators that will be cleared soon,” the spokesperson said. “We were able to clear the dues as our overall collections improved in the last two quarters,” he said. Similarly, a Rajasthan discom official from Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam said, “Relaxation under UDAY has helped us to pay our dues to the wind energy companies.”
Wind power producers confirmed that the lag in payments has fallen on average to four months as the government initiatives taken over the last two years have started to show results. One of the wind power producers said, apart from benefits from the implementation of UDAY, the rationalisation of coal transport and logistics costs, and swapping of coal linkages have benefited utilities to reduce their inventory costs.