As dues owed to power generators by the state-owned electricity distribution companies (discoms) continue to rise, the government is deliberating to introduce a pre-paid mechanism to safeguard the interest of power producers.
“We have already started bringing in the pre-paid payment system for the end-consumers, and we are deliberating of bringing it for generation as well,” Union power minister RK Singh said in the inaugural session of the conference of power ministers of states at Gurugram on Tuesday.
At the end of November, 2018, total discom dues outstanding to generators stood at Rs 40,470 crore. Companies with substantial dues included NTPC (Rs 16,509 crore), Adani Power (Rs 7,320 crore), GMR (Rs 1,788 crore), Sembcorp (Rs 1,520 crore) and Bajaj Group’s Lalitpur Power Generation Company (Rs 2,246 crore).
