SHILLONG, March 5: The Meghalaya government has paid about 25% of the total loan received under the first tranche of the Atmanirbhar scheme to clear the pending dues of power generating companies.
Power Minister James Sangma said he had apprised Union Power Minister R.K. Singh of the efforts being made by the state government to clear the outstanding dues to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and other power generation companies.
He had met Singh in New Delhi to discuss the regulation of power by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) leading to the imposition of load-shedding in the state.
Singh assured that he would work out something to ensure that the regulation of power by NTPC is withdrawn, Sangma said.
“As of now, there is a shortage of about 25% of the total demand for power in the state, which is resulting in six hours of load-shedding across Meghalaya,” he said.
The Power Minister declined to give a timeline but stated that the government was trying its best to resolve the load-shedding problem within 48 hours. The chief minister had on Thursday said the load-shedding would be resolved within 48 hours.
The Meghalaya government had in 2017 signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NTPC under which the state has to pay fixed charges even without drawing power.
According to Sangma, the Bongaigaon thermal power plant in Assam was commissioned in 2017 but the tariff fixed for drawing power from the plant was too high and unviable for the Meghalaya government.
“We had communicated to the Union Ministry of Power that Meghalaya and other states which are signatories to the PPA were adversely affected due to the high power tariff and had decided not to draw power from the plant. Unfortunately, being signatories to the PPA, we have to pay fixed charges to NTPC which has accumulated over the years,” Sangma said.
Asked why NTPC was regulating power when Meghalaya was not drawing power from the corporation, he said that according to a 2019 order issued by the government of India, scheduling of power is communicated to the North East Regional Load Dispatching Centre by the generating companies as and when the letter of credit (LC) is put in place. Subject to the LC being made available, the generating companies advise the load dispatch centre for scheduling of power.
“Because the LC was encashed in February, we were asked to provide a new LC which is a challenge for MeECL,” he said while adding that the last LC was for 12 months and the new LC will be for six months at Rs 18.5 crore per month.
Sangma also said that the Meghalaya government will have to fulfil certain conditions before receiving the second tranche of the loan under Atmanirbhar scheme to clear the pending dues of Rs 1,345 crore.
He stated that some payment has already been made and the government now has to recalculate the dues to be cleared.