NEW DELHI: The two Reliance discoms, BSES Yamuna and Rajdhani, have been waiting for a “comfort letter” from the Delhi government to obtain a Rs 11,000-crore loan from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for the past six months. The two discoms have sought the loan to pay their dues and stabilize their financial situation. The two utilities, which supply power to 70% of Delhi, claim that if they are unable to get the funds it would lead to large scale outages.
Last month, TOI had reported that the government did not issue the letter despite repeated meetings. Principal Secretary (Power) Shakuntala Gamlin said that no assurance has been given to BSES for the comfort letter.
BSES claims that there would be no legal binding on the government for providing the letter in the event the discoms defaulted on loan repayment. “The PFC loan was sanctioned in December last year, but if we don’t get the comfort letter the loan won’t be disbursed,” said a discom source. The letter just signifies that BSES is in a joint venture with the government providing public utility services. Reliance Infra has committed to pledge its entire 51 per cent of shareholding in the two companies to PFC for availing the loan.
“With the summer approaching, it is essential for us to get the loan for maintaining uninterrupted supply of power. There is a huge revenue gap which has been acknowledged by DERC in its tariff order. Dues to generation and transmission companies have been going up consistently. An interim arrangement has been made to pay partial dues, but in the wake of rising dues power supply to BSES may be regulated by generating firms,” claimed the two discoms.
