The Hindu Business Line : Transco gets Centre's nod to swap high-cost loans

THE Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (AP Transco) has received Government of India nod to restructure Rs 2,600-crore outstanding loans in the Andhra Pradesh power sector and thereby swap it with low-cost loans.

In a recent communication to the Corporation Chairman and Managing Director, Ms Rachel Chatterjee, the Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and the Government of India have agreed for the restructure of loans of Rs 2,600 crore in the State power sector, according to AP Transco.

Further, with internal efficiencies, AP Transco plans to bring in savings of about Rs 295 crore, as per tariff order. Due to several efficiency measures and curbing technical and financial losses, the AP Transco and Discoms have not proposed any tariff hike for the last two years. On the contrary, the tariff has been reduced by about 0.74 per cent this year, which will help bring in a relief of about Rs 60 crore on the consumers.

Keeping in view financial performance of the State power utilities, the Centre has extended this relief to restructure various outstanding loans.

With this special arrangement made exclusively for AP power utilities, Rs 2200 crore of Rural Electrification Corporation loan and Rs 400 crore of Power Finance Corporation loan would now be available at 9.5 per cent which is much lower as against 14 per cent and above offered earlier.

It is estimated that with this move, AP Transco would now be able to save more than Rs 130 crore over the next seven years, benefiting consumers who will get the advantage of reduced tariff, Transco stated.

The Transco has informed that it has deployed 14 internal audit special teams consisting of professionals and chartered accountants that will seek to bring in transparency in accounting and streamline the systems and also curb financial losses in the system.

While inaugurating the meeting of these special teams at Vidyut Soudha, the Director of Finance and Revenue, Mr A.Venkateswar, said that these teams would immensely help understand the intricacies of control systems practices to manage risks identified.

He said that a high level coordination committee, which has been constituted recently and headed by the Chairman of AP Transco, has yielded excellent results that is able to monitor interest rates and this has also helped in reduce the overall financial burden on power utilities.

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Transco gets Centre's nod to swap high-cost loans