BSES, a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure and the Delhi government, and the central public sector undertaking, NTPC, have agreed for another round of liquidation of dues, according three officials aware of the decision.
“NTPC had issued a fresh regulation notice to BSES Yamuna for restricting power supply from NTPC’s joint venture company Aravali Power Company Ltd (APCPL) in March 2017,” a government official told BusinessLine . After power supply to BSES was restricted, a resolution was reached to liquidate dues and pay the outstanding amount in tranches, another official aware of negotiations between the two parties said.
NTPC owns 50 per cent stake in APCPL, and Haryana Power Generation Company Ltd (a Haryana government company) and Indraprastha Power Generation Company Ltd (a Delhi government company) own 25 per cent each.
This is the second dues liquidation agreement that the companies have agreed to since May 2016. Under the first agreement, payment of nearly ₹1,300 crore that was due for supplying 2027 MW of power to BSES discoms was restructured under a relaxed payment deadline.
In an emailed statement on June 5, NTPC said, “For the financial year 2016-17, the total days outstanding for NTPC was 39 days, which is well within the stipulated limit of 60 days.” NTPC allows 60 days to state distribution companies for payment of bills raised against power consumption in any month.
Effectively this means that there has been part payment of NTPC’s dues by BSES before the stipulated limit of 60 days. BSES now has another two weeks to par the outstanding dues.
BusinessLine had reported in February that BSES owed APCPL ₹1,562 crore as penalty, interest and power off-take charge. BSES’s net dues to APCPL stood at ₹961 crore before power supply was clipped in September 2016. The company had paid back only ₹158 crore of these dues till February.