J&K in huge arrears, owes NHPC Rs967 cr

Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 14

Jammu and Kashmir has run into a huge arrears of dues towards the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), putting the public-sector undertaking in a tailspin with regard to the early recovery of the amount.

The state’s accumulated arrears over the past many months have shot up to whopping Rs 967 crore.

“We are in touch with the state’s authorities for the recovery,” a NHPC senior official told The Tribune on Thursday, adding that outstanding dues involving a huge sum has affected the NHPC’s developmental goals.

As per norms, a window of two-month credit-line is available to a state to clear up the dues.

The defaulting states will have to pay a penal interest of 18 per cent on the outstanding dues. However, the worry is that the overall due amount gets inflated by the month.

The official said the state seemed to have run into some kind of a financial problem in the last about five months.

Jammu and Kashmir is the second state after Uttar Pradesh with arrears totting up to more than Rs 1,000 crore, making it a defaulter.

The NHPC at present runs eight projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The state gets free-of-cost 13 per cent (including one per cent in the name of “local area development” plan) out of the total production of power from each of the project as they are located there.

However, in order to meet its consumption, the state purchases power worth Rs 150 crore annually from the NHPC.

The PSU has plans to expand its production capacity in future. The cumulative generation from all power stations for the current financial years stands at 23,057 MUs and is expected to surpass the previous record of 23,404 MUs.

Current projects 

The NHPC at present runs eight projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The state gets free-of-cost 13 per cent (including one per cent in the name of local area development plan) out of the total production of power from each of the projects as they are located there.