BSES Yamuna asked to pay current dues by July 15

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday asked BSES Yamuna, one of the three private power distribution firms in the national capital, to pay its current outstanding dues of Rs.161 crore to electricity generation and transmission companies by July 15.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph ordered the payment of dues outstanding till June 30 as mentioned in a statement furnished by BSES Yamuna.

The court further said that the distribution company would make the payment of recurring dues, as and when their demands are raised by the power generation companies, as per the court's earlier order of May 6, 2014.

The court was informed that BSES Rajdhani, a sister company, had cleared all the current outstanding bills. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, who appeared for state-run generator NTPC, told the court that there were no current outstandings of his client.

At the outset, senior counsel K.V. Vishwanathan told the court that BSES was itself to get outstanding dues of more than Rs.5,500 crore and interest on it, which amounted to Rs.696 crore.

These dues are to be paid to BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna on account of the shortfall in the cost of buying power from the state-run generating companies and the permissible tariff it is allowed to charge consumers -- or the subsidy extended to customers.

Vishwanathan said the power distribution company was conscious that these dues, which have been converted into regulatory assets, could not be paid to it in one go as it would put a huge burden on the consumers by way of tariff increase.

He said he would urge the court to at least order the liquidation (or monetisation) of the said Rs.696 crore of arrears, which would translate into a tariff surcharge of 63 paise per unit.

This amount, the senior counsel told the court, would facilitate BSES in paying current outstanding dues of power generation and transmission companies.

"Unless the issue of Rs.696 crore is addressed first, the question of paying the running bills of power generation and transmission companies in toto can't be addressed," he told the court.

At this, Chief Justice Lodha said BSES and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority were already discussing the issue and it would not deal with it at present as the court was only concerned with the current dues.

"You have taken up the matter with the regulatory commission. You are discussing. They may make counter proposal," court said, adding: "Surcharge can't be dealt today. it has to be sorted out with DERC. Solution of regulatory assets will come later."

As Vishwanathan told the court that the government was sitting on the outstanding dues, the chief justice said: "These issues can be sorted out mutually. What's payable by you must be paid. Power generation companies can't be deprived of their running tariff. They are generating power. They are not generating money."