SHILLONG, March 31: Just days after NEEPCO regulated power supply to Meghalaya over nonpayment of dues by Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) resulting in an unprecedented 11-hour of load-shedding in Shillong, the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited today issued a notice for regulation of 50 MW of power from the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) with effect from April 14.
As per the notice issued by POWERGRID, the power regulation will be effective from 00.00 hours of April 14, 2021 for a period of one month or till clearing of the outstanding dues for over 60 days.
In a letter addressed to MeECL CMD, Arunkumar Kembhavi, POWERGRID Chief General Manager (Commercial), J. Mazumdar said that despite repeated requests, MeECL is yet to clear due of Rs 56.89 crore, out of which an amount of Rs 46.51 crore is the outstanding for over 45 days.
On February 17, POWERGRID had written to MeECL requesting the corporation to liquidate the outstanding dues within 60 days (by April 08, 2021) failing which regulation of power supply shall be enforced.
“The implementation of regulation of power supply as per our earlier notice was modified based on the commitment of MeECL for clearing dues but MeECL failed to comply with their own commitment,” Mazumdar stated in Wednesday’s notification.
“It is a matter of serious concern that MeECL is consistently failing to clear the full dues against the monthly bills raised on it towards transmission tariff despite regular follow-up by Central Transmission Utility (CTU) and commitments by MeECL,” the official said, adding, “as a consequence, total dues of MeECL have grown to a huge amount of Rs 56.89 crore as on date, out of which an amount of Rs 46.51 crore is outstanding for 45 days (Rs 38.4 crore due has crossed 60 days and an amount of Rs 26.51 crore has even crossed 90 days), based on the bills already raised by CTU.”
“Such huge outstanding dues are seriously affecting the cash flows of all the ISTS licensees and causing adverse impact on the ability to carry on as a business enterprise and to fulfill loan repayment liabilities towards creation of transmission assets,” Mazumdar said.
