Better fund mgmt helps PSPCL save Rs190 cr

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 15

Better management of financial resources this year has helped Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) save Rs 190 crore. This saving will help the state power utility to come out of the red and reduce its annual revenue requirements.

Courtesy the saving, the PSPCL after several years hasn’t paid the late payment surcharge on power it buys from other power generators. The power utility had paid Rs 41.54 crore as late payment surcharge last year, and Rs 55.37 crore in 2018-19. By reducing its cost of borrowings and increasing its overdraft limits, the state power utility managed to pay the charges for buying power from other private and government-owned power generators on time. This helped the PSPCL save Rs 140 crore as it got a two per cent rebate for making timely payments. “Another Rs 50 crore has been saved as late payment surcharge, which we were paying each year to power generators such as NPL, NTPC, etc,” said A Venu Prasad, CMD.

Each year, the state power utility would buy power worth Rs 29,000 crore, besides generating its own power at the state-owned plants, getting supply from the three private power plants, etc.

Prasad told The Tribune this year the external borrowing was much less, and that the PSPCL had managed to reduce the cost of interest on borrowings by negotiating with financial institutions and getting the interest rate reduced from 11.5 per cent to 8-8.5 per cent.