State-run electricity distribution companies (discoms) reported financial losses of Rs 21,658 crore at the end of FY19, up 4.4% year-on-year, reversing the declining trend since the UDAY scheme for these entities’ revival was launched in November 2015. Worse, according to the provisional data furnished by 26 states/UTs, the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses — electricity units lost on account of pilferage — of their discoms stood at 19.1% at the end of FY19, while the target was to bring down these losses to 15% by FY19-end. In fact, there was a 0.4 percentage point increase in these losses from the level recorded a year earlier, reversing the downward trajectory seen till FY18-end (on a quarterly basis, the y-o-y reduction in AT&C loss continued till Q3FY19).
