UPCL received Rs. 425 crore in excess from Escoms – Samithi

UPCL received Rs. 425 crore in excess from Escoms – Samithi

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Aug 2, 2012 : Nandikuar Janajagrithi Samithi claimed that the Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) has received an excess of Rs. 425 crore as payment for power from its first unit, from Nov 11, 2011 to June 2012, from the five Escoms in Karnataka without getting the tariff approval from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), without ratification of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) from the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), and without signing the PPA for the new capacity of 1,200MW, which is mandatory under the Electricity Act of 2003.

 

The samithi’s press release of Aug 1, Wednesday stated that it got this information from the Power Company of Karnataka Limited (PCKL) through an RTI application. It further stated that the government had approved provision tariff of Rs. 3.127 per unit on September 27, 2010 and the UPCL was paid according to this rate from that date.

Neither the government nor any government agency has the authority to approve increase of tariff beyond the parameters approved by the CERC and terms agreed in the PPA. The UPCL and the Escoms signed the PPA on Dec 26, 2005 for 1015MW as per the CERC-approved cost of Rs. 4,229.12 crore at the rate of Rs. 2.25 per unit. Although the capacity is now 1,200MW, this should reduce the cost per unit, not increase it.

Despite this, the UPCL is getting Rs. 3.127 per unit for the past one and half year although it had requested a hike of Rs. 2.54 per unit. According to the Escoms’ statement of accounts, the first unit of the UPCL had supplied 4,855,917,413 from Nov 11, 2011 to June 2012. The UPCL’s bill should be for Rs. 1,092 crore at the rate of Rs. 2.25 per unit, but the distribution companies have released a bill of Rs. 1,518 crore, making it an excess of Rs. 425 crore paid to the UPCL.

Vice President (corporate affairs) of UPCL has denied all these charges.