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After private power producers Adani Power and Tata Power offered majority stake to the Gujarat government for a token ₹1, citing inability to run the coal-based power plants, a top government official said a decision would be taken with the interests of the consumers in mind.
Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, Servo Oil Gas & Fertilizer Meet 2017 in Ahmedabad, Sujit Gulati, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy and Petrochemicals, said the State Bank of India has taken the lead in valuations, as the bank represents a consortium of lenders, whose combined exposure to the power plants exceeds ₹40,000 crore.
Valuations being done “The valuations are being done by expert agencies. The SBI itself is an expert lender and they are taking the lead in making the valuation estimation. Our primary focus is that consumer interests are protected,” said Gulati.
“At the same time, the assets built by companies should not be wasted. Whoever uses the asset, we will ensure that at the end of the day consumer interest remains paramount,” he added.
In July, SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya had met Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani amid the distress offer by the two power producers to offload 51 per cent stake in each of their power plants for ₹1 to the state utility Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL).
Earlier in June, Adani and Tata Power had expressed their woes to the State government requesting GUVNL to consider various options to address the non-viability of thermal power projects, which are primarily dependent on imported coal.
After its quarterly results last week, Adani group Chairman Gautam Adani said the company was in talks with stakeholders to identify remedial measures. “We continue to engage with various stakeholders for the Mundra plant and remain fully committed to identifying possible remedial measures for its long term sustainability,” he said in a statement.
Generation capacity These coal-based thermal plants, having combined generation capacity of over 8,000 MW, became non-viable after changes in the regulations at the source country, Indonesia.
The Supreme Court in April denied compensatory tariff to these companies, thereby, denying earlier relief granted by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL). Since then, efforts are being made to avoid these assets from turning into non-performing ones.
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