Telangana and Assam today signed MoUs for being a part of the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna in a bid to better performance of state run power distribution companies. Speaking at the event, Union Power Minister, Piyush Goyal said, "An overall net benefit of approximately Rs 6,116 crore to Telangana and Rs 1,663 crore to Assam will come from joining the scheme."
According to a government press statement, the Government of Telangana would take over Rs 8,923 crore of the total Rs 11,897 crore of discom debt. The Assam government would take over Rs 928 crore out of total Rs 1,510 crore DISCOM Debt (being 75% of their respective DISCOM debt outstanding as on 30.09.2015, as envisaged in the scheme) and the balance debt would be re-priced or issued as State guaranteed DISCOM bonds. This would amount to annual saving in the interest cost of Rs 387 crore to Telangana and Rs 37 crore to Assam respectively. The interest cost on future borrowings is also expected to reduce, providing a saving of around Rs.30-40 crores to these States.
In case of Telangana, the reduction in AT&C losses and transmission losses to 9.95% and 3% respectively is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs.1476 crores, during the period of turnaround, whereas additional revenue of Rs.699 crore would accrue to Assam on reduction of AT&C losses and transmission losses to 15% and 3.4% respectively.
The gains to these states through Demand Side interventions in UDAY such as usage of energy-efficient domestic as well as industrial/commercial equipment is expected to be around Rs. 1200 crores & Rs. 260 crores respectively. The States of Telangana and Assam are also expected to benefit around Rs. 2250 crores and Rs. 520 crores respectively on account of the support being extended by the Centre through various coal reform measures.
The government also launched the UDAY portal and mobile app to enable transparency in working of state run power distribution companies.
The portal would track and monitor the progress of DISCOMs on operational and financial parameters under UDAY scheme of Ministry of Power.