Rs 4,500-cr free power subsidy stuck with govt, PSPCL’s collection efficiency dips

Over Rs 4,500 crore subsidy bill pending towards the state government in lieu of subsidised power supplied to various categories of consumers and the high consumption of power in recent months means the collection efficiency of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has gone down, leading to higher aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses.

Low collection efficiency may lead to higher power rates for consumers next fiscal. Experts say in case the subsidy amount is not released timely, the losses will go up further and the consumers will face higher power tariff next fiscal.

As per the energy account report, the revenue collection efficiency of the PSPCL has come down to 73.29 per cent from 106.22 per cent in the previous quarter. This has led to increase in AT&C losses to 34.5 per cent against 14.72 per cent in the first quarter. The transmission and distribution losses of the PSPCL are 10.73 per cent.

The net power supply in Punjab during three months was 26,992 million units to 1.09 crore consumers with a maximum restricted load of 16,078 MW. During the three summer months of the paddy season, the power supply to the agriculture sector was 8014 million units, whereas the domestic consumption was 7,422 million units.

There are 13.92 lakh agri connections as against 80.52 lakh domestic ones in the state. The number of domestic consumers went up by 1 lakh in the second quarter. While 43,468 industrial consumers used 6,066 million units in three months.

A senior PSPCL official told The Tribune that during the second quarter of this year, power consumption increased abnormally (by 11 per cent over the previous year) due to high temperature and below average rain. He said while Rs 2,350 crore subsidy payment was pending towards the state government on September 30, the amount touched Rs 4,500 crore on November 30.

“The government gives subsidy in 12 monthly instalments. Due to higher consumption in the past three months and delay in the release of subsidy on average basis, collection efficiency has dropped,” said an official.