J&K slammed for sleeping over matter despite several orders
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 11: Slamming Jammu and Kashmir Government for sleeping over the payment of Unscheduled Interchange (UI) charges despite several orders and reminders, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has rejected all the pleas of the State on the issue and gave directions in unequivocal terms for early clearance of Rs 637 crore UI charges failing which allocated quota of electricity of J&K from the UI pool will be reduced.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that despite several orders of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, the successive State Governments didn’t pay any attention towards the clearance of Unscheduled Interchange charges, which have got accumulated to Rs 637 crore since 2002. Of this huge amount, Rs 295 crore is the principal amount while as the remaining Rs 342 crore is amount of interest which has accumulated on the main UI charges during the past one decade.
The Unscheduled Interchange charges are imposed when any State overdraws electricity from UI pool beyond its allocated share and in these circumstances such State is required to pay the UI charges as are worked out by the CERC after going through the petitions of those States, which lose its share on over-drawal by others.
“After several reminders, the State woke up from the slumber and finally approached the CERC with the plea that interest amount should be waived off but the request was turned down by the Commission on the ground that the amount of interest belongs to those States whose share has been drawn by Jammu and Kashmir”, sources said.
On July 5, 2012, the CERC again dashed a communication to the State Government asking it to apprise the Commission about the payment plan it has chalked out to clear huge UI charges. Accordingly, the State pleaded before the Commission that it should be allowed to make payment of UI charges in 10 equal installments but much to the surprise of the State Government, the Commission also turned down this request, sources said.
“Now, the CERC has imposed penalty of Rs 8 lakh on the State Government for non payment of UI charges and default in overdrawal”, they informed, adding “the CERC has directed the State Government in explicit terms to clear the UI charges within a period of three weeks failing which Commission would be compelled to take action under law”.
To a question, they said, “the CERC has conveyed to the State Government that in case it fails to clear the UI charges of Rs 637 crore within three weeks, J&K’s allocated quota under the UI pool would be reduced considerably”.
The CERC, which is a quasi-judicial body, has also directed the State Government to ensure that there is no default in future and no further overdrawals from the UI pool, sources said, adding “the Commission has also asked the State to ensure immediate payment of UI charges in case situation compels for overdrawal of electricity in future”.
It has advised the State Government to sign long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the electricity generating companies in order to escape the UI charges, sources said. They elaborated that after signing long term PPA, the State would be able to purchase power from generating companies at reasonable rates, which would be much less than the UI charges.
Responding to another question, sources said, “non-payment of Rs 295 crore UI charges which resulted into levying of interest to the tune of Rs 342 crore clearly points towards the mismanagement, which was prevailing in the Power Development Department during the past over a decade”, adding “had the concerned authorities paid any serious attention towards clearance of UI charges in accordance with the directives of CERC, such a huge financial burden on the State exchequer could have been avoided”.
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