PSEB’s financial condition improves
Income up by Rs 478 cr; expenses cut down by Rs 272 cr
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 29
Even as the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) is fast heading towards its unbundling owing to central deadline of September 15, the board has managed to increase its income by a neat Rs 478 crore this year.

At the same time, the board has worked harder towards decreasing its expenses by Rs 272 crore. This way, the PSEB’s fiscal position has improved by a whopping Rs 750 crore as compared to its position during the year 2007-08. It is a different matter that the board is facing a huge shortage of over 27,000 officials as it has failed to effect any recruitment drive during past 12 years.

The board’s revenue generation would have been more than Rs 1,000 crore if it had not been made to shell out Rs 275 crore due to increased fuel prices. Mainly, the board used coal as fuel in all of its thermal plants even as oil was also put to use for firing of these plants at the initial stages of generation, sources said.

Unaudited annual fiscal results of the PSEB revealed that the board’s financial position showed improvement due to increased efficiency, increased sale of power, and close monitoring of every activity by the management, said PSEB Chairman HS Brar.

Board authorities said the increased sale of power, in other words, meant that connections had increased in the state. Thus consumption of more power within the state and not the sale of power to other states.

Brar further said the board’s transmission and distribution losses have also been reduced to 19.9 per cent during 2008-09 as compared to 22.53 per cent during the previous year. He further informed that the board was making every effort to bring these losses down to the level of 15 per cent in next two to three years.