Punjab: Officials behind PPAs during SAD-BJP government under scanner

Aman Sood

Patiala, February 19

The government has started process to fix responsibility and nail the erring officials who allegedly drafted and added lopsided terms to the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power producers (IPPs) during the previous SAD-BJP government.

Review underway

We are reviewing all PPAs signed in the past two decades. The ones which are financially unviable and anti-people will be annulled legally. Based on that action against the erring officials will be taken. — Harbhajan Singh, Power minister

The Power Ministry is reviewing the PPAs and also ascertaining the role of some officials who signed such PPAs which led to costly power purchase for Punjab, despite three power plants. The move comes ahead of the AAP government completing a year in Punjab.

In 2021, a ‘white paper’ on the power purchase agreements (PPAs) was presented in Vidhan Sabha by the then government in run up to the election without blaming anyone.

Power Minister Harbhajan Singh told The Tribune that power sector experts and the government were studying details of all PPAs and legally examining the same. “We are reviewing all PPAs signed in the past two decades. The ones which are financially unviable and anti-people will be annulled legally. Based on that action against the officers who ignored the financial viability will face the music,” he stated.

A senior Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) official said, “The government must act against officials who drafted such PPAs that ensured that Punjab continues to pay hundreds of crores without any guarantee of power even during peak season,” he added.

VK Gupta, spokesperson, All India Power Engineers Federation, said the flawed PPAs made by “certain officers” continue to bleed PSPCL and the power consumers of the state by crores.

“The then government was in such a hurry to finalise the PPAs with the private generators that they did not bother about the guidelines of Centre. Tenders were finalised without bothering for the source of coal supply. The higher gross calorific value (GCV) of coal was assumed without knowing the actual coal supply source. The actual GCV and coal rates as prevalent then in state thermal plants should have been taken as guidelines,” he added.

“Without finalising for the source of coal for these private power plants the rate of coal and its transportation were assumed from the nearest coal mine to keep the levelised cost below the generating cost of Lehra Mohabatt and Ropar thermal plant,” he said.