SHILLONG, March 16: The Opposition Congress on Tuesday questioned the wisdom of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) in availing the loan of Rs 1,345.72 crore under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Scheme for repayment of outstanding dues to various power generation companies despite already being under severe financial stress.
“The interest on the loan comes to Rs 10.65 crore per month which is huge. The MeECL will have to pay the principal amount along with the interest once the moratorium period of three years is over,” Congress MLA Zenith M. Sangma said in the Assembly today.
Observing that MeECL will have to pay a monthly interest of around Rs 20 to Rs 30 crore after the end of the moratorium period, Sangma questioned whether the MeECL would burden the consumers by increasing the power tariff to generate additional revenue to pay off the debt. “If the repayment amount is more than the revenue generated then how is the MeECL going to sustain itself,” the Congress MLA asked.
Painting a bleak future for the MeECL, Sangma said the huge debt would turn it into a non-performing asset and the government would be compelled to fully privatise the corporation.
Power Minister James PK Sangma admitted that MeECL has a lot of debts but affirmed that the loan burden would not be passed on to the consumers.
“We decided to take advantage of the opportunity that the Centre offered as Atmanirbhar loan to help power distribution companies (discoms) in distress. The handsome rate of interest offered with a moratorium made it very attractive. We took a call to avail the loan considering the financial stress in the MeECL,” he said.
The minister also took the opportunity to pass the buck onto the previous government saying that MDA had inherited the mess created by the previous Congress government.
“With the problems we inherited, MeECL was heading towards becoming an NPA. The failure of the then Congress-led government to clear terminal benefits for employees propelled the MeECL burden from Rs 844 crore to over Rs 2,000 crore,” he said.
Sangma also made it clear that the issues in MeECL were not new and it would take some more years for the problems to be sorted out.
“We are trying our best to increase our revenue generation capacity and reduce the aggregate technical & commercial losses,” he said.
The minister also said that the state government has decided to introduce smart meters to improve the billing efficiency.