New Delhi: State-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC Limited have so far disbursed around Rs 45,083 crore and sanctioned loans of Rs 1,18,508 crore to discoms so far under the Rs 1.2 lakh crore liquidity scheme, the Ministry of Power said on Wednesday. To alleviate the financial stress being faced by discoms, a liquidity infusion scheme under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan was announced by the government. The scheme mandated PFC and REC to provide funding to discoms to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore for the clearance of their outstanding dues towards CPSU GENCOs and TRANSCOs, IPPs and RE Generators as on March 30, 2020.
However, based on requests received from discoms, the Ministry of Power extended the outstanding dues timelines to June 30, thereby taking the overall value of the scheme to around Rs 1.2 lakh crore.
Under this intervention, REC and PFC are extending special long-term transition loans upto 10 years to power distribution companies (DISCOMs) for liquidating outstanding dues of Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) Generation (Gencos) and transmission companies (Transcos), Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Renewable Energy (RE) generators, as existing on June 30. Further, the government has also approved the proposal to allow utilities in states, which do not have adequate headroom against state receivables or working capital limits under UDAY, to avail the benefits of the liquidity infusion scheme.
Major state discoms which have benefited from the scheme are UP, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra etc. The relief package has been released in two tranches by PFC and REC and both the PSUs are co-funding the loans in equal proportion.
To avail the above financial assistance, state and discoms have to comply with pre-commitment and pre-disbursement conditions such as installation of pre-paid/Smart meters in government departments, reduction of AT&C and ACS-ARR gap, liquidation of pending subsidy and electricity dues etc which shall help in improving financial condition of discoms.
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