‘Meghalaya dishonoured payback pact of 2013’
SHILLONG: The prospects seem to be dark indeed in the coming days in Meghalaya as the State Government now faces a mounting burden of interest on dues to Central power utilities, let alone repayment of the principals. The interest burden alone is Rs 77 crore out of the total power dues of Rs 379 crore to NEEPCO.
The only possible succour now seems to be the possibility of the Union Government deducting from the Central Plan assistance to Meghalaya the amount due and handing it over to NEEPCO.
Because of the huge pending dues, the State government is not in a position to buy power from NEEPCO, though the situation continues to get worse. Even then, NEEPCO was still providing around 12 mw of power to Meghalaya from its Kopili project since the Central power utility was headquartered in Meghalaya itself, NEEPCO Director of Finance AG West Kharkongor informed The Shillong Times on Monday.
He said the total outstanding amount as on April 28 was Rs 379 crore which was yet to be cleared by the State Government to NEEPCO. Out of the total outstanding amount, Rs 302 crore was the principal while Rs 77 crore was the interest accrued since the time dues had started accumulating. The last installment which had been paid by the Meghalaya Government to NEEPCO was Rs 20 crore in April 2013 and NEEPCO was now constrained to regulate supplies to Meghalaya.
He said an agreement was signed in November 2013, in which the State had assured of clearing the dues in 24 installments. However, the State Government had not honoured the agreement and no installment had been released as of now, Kharkongor said.
According to him, the Union Power Ministry also knew about the matter that Meghalaya Government had not cleared the pending dues and that a tripartite agreement had been signed earlier on continuing supply of power to Meghalaya.
Kharknogor informed that there was a clause in the agreement which stated that if the State Government failed to clear the dues, then the Central Government could deduct the amount from the Plan assistance of the State Government and hand over the amount to NEEPCO.