DISCOMs, Unexplained discrepancies & DERC

DISCOMs : They just want to raise the Tariff more n more to gain the maximum as they are the business houses with no social motives or intentions.


UNEXPLAINED DISCREPANCIES : We spent a lot of time & found as below from the DERC documents : 

Revenue collection :

How the revenue collection in April & May can be just 82.36% and 78.44% in case of BRPL & 61.37% ( ? ) and 79.24% in case of BYPL. Where is rest of the money ? What is the actual amount being said to be not collected ? Do they mean they have GIFTED the rest of the money to consumers ? Do they mean, they had targeted collections in the rest of the months ? If yes, how they could not collect it in April & May ? This needs to be checked thoroughly as the collection efficiency is said to be 92.6% & 89.2% respectively, in case of both Discoms.

How the revenue collected in both of the cases i.e. BRPL & BYPL in April is about 40% of the average of rest of the months. Was there any strategy to show lower collections ? What is the actual difference in monetary terms ?

Billing :

There is a clear indication that the game has been played with the consumers in the month of  April & May. The billed units were lesser by 100 MUs & 60 MUs in case of  BRPL / BYPL in the same period during last year.  Moreover, the Billed units in April were 167 MUs lesser than the energy sold by BRPL in March, same year. How the Billed units can be lesser by 167 MUs from March to April in the same year ? This needs to be checked thoroughly as it has raised many doubts on the working of Discom’s. Billing for rest of the months MUST ALSO BE thoroughly rechecked.

Purchase cost :

How the power cost can be raised from 297 Crores to 648 crores in case of BRPL & from 216 Crores to 466 crores in case of BYPL during April to November i.e. in a span of just 6 – 8 months ? It’s said the increase was  by 117% & 116% respectively in both the cases. Do you think it matches the national price index ? What was the percentage of increase in the last few years ? Is the increase exhibited now, in the same ratio as that of in earlier years ? What the Auditors have mentioned over it ?

SHOCKING :

It’s even more surprising that in case of both the utilities, the power purchase cost during the month shown in one statement does not match with the corresponding cash flow statements. It clearly indicates the quantum of misappropriations in the DISCOM’s and must be thoroughly investigated. 

AT & C Losses :

DERC earlier vide its circular had indicated AT&C losses reduced to just 14% to 20% for various Discoms. Than how these have been increased upto 27.36% & 32.28% in both the cases. This must be checked thoroughly as it can have a massive impact on the visible profitability of DISCOM’s.

Collection targets :

Where is the rest of appx. 10% & 7% of the billed amount to be collected. Is it being shown in the Sundry Debtors or they have written it off as bad debts ?

These are the clear cut indications of the anomalies existing in these DISCOM’s and we are sure that there is a big loophole in the whole story.

DERC : Even though, RWA delegations during various public hearings raised dozens of objections, still the DERC allowed DISCOMs to raise tariffs by almost 22%. Again after locating so many UNEXPLAINED DISCREPANCIES in the Audited accounts of these business houses, it again allowed them to increase the tariff by 5% on the name of Fuel surcharge.

Please comment.

Thanks

B S Vohra