CAG slams govt on power purchase
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 11
The functioning of the state power utilities, particularly in regard with the purchase of electricity from other agencies, has come under heavy fire from the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG).

In its latest report, the CAG has highlighted how the Haryana Vidyut Prasar Nigam (HVPN) had suffered huge losses by purchasing power at higher rates when cheaper electricity was available from elsewhere.

Accountant-General (audit), Haryana, Jagbans Singh said here today that the HVPN had suffered a loss of over Rs 101 crore when it purchased power from Himachal Pradesh in 2007 at the rate of Rs 7.15 per unit, excluding all other charges. The estimated landed cost of power was Rs 7.40 per unit.

As per the agreement, the HVPN had to compensate the seller state even for the power not drawn by it at the full tariff rate. The AG said the company had not accepted such stringent condition for purchase of power from any other source. In certain other purchase agreements, a compensation of Re 0.50 to Re 1 per unit was payable, while in other cases no compensation was leviable.

He said at that time adequate power was available from the grid at cheaper rates ranging from Rs 2.70 to Rs 4.25 per unit. However, due to the stringent agreement for power from Himachal Pradesh the HVPN had to procure the entire power, resulting in extra expenditure of Rs 101.48 crore. Moreover, the HVPN had to back down Haryana’s own units from May-September 2007 due to lack of demand resulting in loss of generation of over 11 million units at Rs 2.80 per unit.