SHILLONG: The power dues of over Rs 1200 crore and the pending terminal benefits of Rs 840 crore to be paid to the retired employees, have affected the functioning of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).
The terminal benefits were assured to the employees prior to MeSEB becoming MeECL.
The MeECL is also overburdened by loans and accumulating interest payments.
It will have to pay the power dues to NEEPCO, Palatana and others. Pension corpus liabilities are also cause for concern.
An official source on Wednesday admitted the hurdles and added that the government is having frequent meetings to address the concerns.
The erstwhile MeSEB was corporatised on April 1, 2010 as mandated by the Electricity Act, 2003.
As a result of which, the MeSEB was converted into MeECL as a holder company and the three branches of then MeSEB like Generation, Transmission and Distribution were also incorporated as Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Limited (MePGCL), Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Limited (MePTCL) and Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL). Accordingly, all these entities should have their own powers and functions independently.
No decentralisation
However, sources said that the corporatisation was carried out just in name as all the three companies are totally subservient to MeECL and the day-to-day exercise of powers and functions are exactly the same as being done during the MeSEB regime.
Sources added that this is the principal flaw in the corporatisation of the MeSEB.
Hence, sources said that the restructuring of the state electricity board in Meghalaya as mandated by the Act was messy and it became a farce.
Loan component
The MeECL has an outstanding loan of Rs 1345 crore without calculating the accumulated interest.
Moreover, it is yet to pay Rs 652 crore to NEEPCO for purchase of energy. Besides, it has to clear pending energy bills of Palatana and other power suppliers. Again it owed its retired employees Rs 840 crore. But by now, it will be around Rs 1700 crore (terminal benefits and pension).
Revenue
Compared to the expenditure, the MeECL gets approximately Rs 55 to Rs 60 crore per month as revenue.
However, the expenditure in terms of salary is Rs 30 crore for 3000 odd employees and pensioners.
According to sources, the MeECL through MePDCL can easily fetch a monthly revenue of Rs 70 to Rs 80 crore if the mechanism of revenue collection is strictly streamlined, reduce transmission losses, arrest power thefts, streamline and strategise aggregate technical and commercial losses.
Another vital step for the MeECL is to accord more care and attention to its own power generation wing because MePGCL is the only state power player which supplies around 50 per cent of the energy needs of the state, the sources added.
