Financial health of power corpn ‘worsens’
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 10
Almost a year after the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) was bifurcated into two power utilities - Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL), the Punjab Government has not been able to prepare a road map to improve the fiscal condition of the cash-strapped power corporation. Expressing these views, the representatives of the PSEB Engineers’ Association have stated that the Punjab Government has not given any financial aid to the new power utilities, so that the new entities can start their business with a clean balance sheet.

Elaborating on the matter, association president HS Bedi, told The Tribune, “One of the basic reasons for unbundling the PSEB was the poor financial health of the board. For ensuring the financial viability and sustainability, the state government was supposed to restructure the liabilities of the State Electricity Board, in order to ensure that the successor companies were not burdened with past liabilities. Unfortunately, in the Punjab Budget for the fiscal year 2011-12, nothing has been mentioned about the financial restructuring of the two power utilities.”

Quoting some figures, association general secretary Bhupinder Singh said the two power utilities were already burdened with the previous accumulated loss of Rs 9,713 crore, which has now touched the figure of Rs 12,000 crore ending March 2011. “This data itself makes it amply clear about the deteriorating financial health of the power corporation after the unbundling,” he said, while adding that no budgetary allocation for setting up a new thermal plant under the state sector was a matter of great concern.

“Even, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) had observed that state-sponsored projects or projects awarded through competitive bidding, are likely to result in power being available to the consumers in Punjab at relatively low rates,” he claimed.

Many of the senior officials of the power corporation, preferring anonymity, said, “Most of the progressive states are adding new power generation plants, either under the state sector or through competitive bidding. But in Punjab, all new thermal plants are being awarded to the private players through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) route that will definitely lead to an increase in the electricity tariff.” Retired Chief Engineer from the erstwhile PSEB, Padamjit Singh, said that it was really surprising that there had been no budgetary allocation for setting up a new thermal plant under the state sector.