VIJAYAWADA: The State government has once again written to the Union Ministry of Power requesting it to support discoms and give a relaxation on the letter of credits (LoCs) to be extended by the power distribution companies (discoms), reschedule the debt, provide soft loans and other interventions as the 21-day lockdown in view of covid-19 in the country dealt a major blow to the companies.
The State observed that ‘drastic’ dip in the revenue also ‘impaired’ the exchequer.
Energy Secretary Nagulapalli Srikant, in the letter addressed to the secretary of Union Ministry of Power, requested intervention in eight parameters. In the letter sent late on Thursday, the State sought the Centre’s support for ‘three months or till the situation normalises, whichever is later’.
“The 21-day lockdown has resulted in fall in electricity bill collections by 80 per cent and electricity demand by 20 per cent, besides drastic fall in the revenue collections of the State, impairing the government also to support the discoms,” the letter read.
The power utilities get revenue collections of about Rs 70 crore, but they are managing to get only around Rs 8 to 9 crore now, an official said.
The State had written a letter to the Centre on on March 24 requesting liquidity support and supply chain support (for coal). Sources said the Centre had not responded yet. Hours after the first letter was shot off, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced country-wide lockdown for three weeks.
A top-ranking official said, “The discoms’ revenue has been hit. We need support. Otherwise, it will be difficult to stay afloat as our discoms’ financial health has been poor. If there are no relaxations, it may also affect the power supply in this crisis.”
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