For first time since Jan, power sector dues to Coal India fall by Rs 350 cr in July

• This is a significant change as the dues have only mounted consistently since January when it stood at Rs 12,423.36 crore

• In June, the total dues owed by the power sector to Coal India was at Rs 20,918.96 crore

New Delhi: The total outstanding dues from the power sector to Coal India has decreased marginally by around Rs 350 crore as it stood at Rs 20,570.76 crore at the end of July, data sourced from the Ministry of Coal showed. This is a significant change as the dues have only mounted consistently since January when it stood at Rs 12,423.36 crore. In June, the total dues owed by the power sector to Coal India was at Rs 20,918.96 crore. The news comes as government-owned companies Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC Limited have disbursed the first tranche of loans under the Rs 90,000-crore package announced by the government in May as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

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The power sector is under financial stress mainly due to discoms' inability to pay power generating companies, which in turn, are unable to pay companies further down the chain, like Coal India, which supplies supplies around 80 percent of its total supplies to the power sector. At the end of June, the cumulative dues owed by discoms to power generating companies, including CPSUs, state gencos, independent power producers (IPPs) and Renewable Energy developers, stood at Rs 1.20 lakh crore.

Power sector dues to Coal India rose by around Rs 6,500 crore in Q1 of FY21

Official data also showed that the dues owed by gencos to Coal India went up by around Rs 6,500 crore in Q1 of FY2020-21. At the end of March, the figure stood at 14,374.05 crore, while at the end of June, it stood at Rs 20,918.96 crore. The biggest increase in the dues was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown, when the figure went up from Rs 14,374.05 crore in March to Rs 17,000.64 crore in April. The company had continued coal supply to companies that had defaulted on previous payments as a relief measure during the course of the lockdown.

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