Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 8: In yet another shock to the Power Development Department of the State, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has directed the Commissioner Secretary of the Department to liquidate the entire outstanding Unscheduled Interchanges (UI) charges including the current dues to the tune of Rs 74.07 crore by 25th of the current month.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that through a formal petition before the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) has submitted that J&K’s Power Development Department has defaulted in payment of UI charges for the energy drawn in excess of the drawn schedule.
“The net outstanding UI charges including surcharge as on August 20, 2013 against the Power Development Department of Jammu and Kashmir is Rs 74.07 crore as per the UI Regulations”, the NRLDC further submitted before the Commission.
The Regulation 10 of the CERC states that the payment of UI charges shall have a high priority and the concerned constituent shall pay the indicated amounts within 10 days of the issuance of statement of Unscheduled Interchange charges into the Regional Unscheduled Interchange Pool Account Fund of the concerned region.
It further states that if the payments against the UI charges including Additional Unscheduled Interchange charges are delayed by more than 2 days—beyond 12 days from the date of issuance of the statement by the Secretariat of the respective Regional Power Committee, the defaulting constituency shall have to pay simple interest at the rate of 0.04% for each day of delay.
“However, the Power Development Department of J&K has not been strictly following these provisions of the UI Regulations as such is a defaulting entity”, sources said quoting the observations of the CERC bench comprising V S Verma and M Deena Dayalan.
From the facts placed before it, the CERC observed, “it emerges that the respondents (J&K PDD) have not complied with the provisions. Firstly, the respondent is directed to liquidate the entire outstanding UI payable including the current outstanding dues by October 25, 2013”.
The Commission has directed the Secretary Power Development Department to personally supervise entire liquidation of the outstanding amount by October 25, 2013. “If the outstanding UI dues are not liquidated within this period, the respondents are directed to show cause, latest by October 31, 2013 as to why action under Section 142 of the Electricity Act, 2003 should not be taken against them for non-compliance of the provisions of the UI Regulations in regard to timely payment of UI charges and directions of the Commission”, the order said.
The Commission has now listed the NRLDC petition for further directions on November 12, 2013.
It is pertinent to mention here that CERC has already hinted at denying short-term open access to the State under the relevant regulations for ignoring the repeated directions regarding opening of Letter of Credit.
Under the short-term open access, any State can get power beyond the allocated share to meet any emergent situation. The hard stand has been taken by the CERC as the PDD has taken refuge under Article 370 in order to ignore the directives of the Commission.
In reply to a question, sources said, “keeping in view the CERC’s indication vis-à-vis denying short term open access to the State, the PDD authorities are consulting experts in order to file fresh submission before the Commission so that impending major crisis is avoided especially when the power consumption will increase during the winter months particularly in Kashmir valley”.
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