The Hindu Business Line : State power boards owe Rs 1,754 cr to Railways

THE Railways carry coal for most of the thermal power plants in the country. It is also the prime customer for many of these plants, making prompt payments for the electricity purchased. Yet, many of these power plants have not paid the Railways their freight charges.

While schemes for pre-payment of haulage charges and adjustment against the power bill have arrested the ballooning dues, as per the latest figures, the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) still owe Rs 1,754 crore to the Railways, a senior Rail Bhawan official told Business Line.

The National Thermal Power Corporation-operated Badarpur Thermal Power Station in the Capital continues to hold the dubious distinction of having the highest amount as dues at Rs 966.6 crore. The next major defaulter is the Punjab State Electricity Board with dues amounting to Rs 424 crore. The Delhi Vidyut Board and Rajasthan SEBs owe Rs 180 crore and Rs 110 crore, respectively.

But, the Bihar SEB owes just Rs 2 lakh, while Uttar Pradesh has partly cleared its old dues of nearly Rs 100 crore to bring down the total outstanding to Rs 27 crore, the official said.

The SEBs in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have zero or negligible outstanding and make up at the top of the list for paying for carting their coal on time.

The Railways had launched a scheme for pre-payment of freight charges for carrying coal to the power houses in October 1996 to arrest the fresh accrual of outstandings.

The Centre had decided in February 1997 that the outstanding dues from the SEBs and power stations till December 1996 would be adjusted from the Central plan assistance to the respective State governments. The Railways have recovered nearly Rs 160 crore under the scheme, the official said. "The Railways Minister (Mr Nitish Kumar) and senior Railway Board officials are in touch with the chiefs of the defaulting SEBs and power houses and we hold regular review meetings to monitor the situation," he said.

Asked what prevented the Railways from cutting off coal supplies to the defaulters, the official pointed out that as part of their social role, the organisation could not plunge the SEBs into power crisis. "Imagine if we suspend coal supply to the Badarpur plant, half of Delhi would plunge into darkness," he said.

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