Unless the state-run electricity distribution entities (discoms) mend their ways and pay power companies on time, the latter may be pushed to defaulting on coal payments, and fuel crises like the current one might recur, Union minister for power, new and renewable energy RK Singh said on Monday.
“Power plants owe huge quantum of money to Coal India (CIL), so naturally, it (CIL) gets into difficulty,” Singh said. He added that the Union power ministry would soon write to the state governments and discoms, asking to clear their dues to gencos — Rs 75,000 crore at last count — at the earliest.
