In an effort to improve the precarious financial condition of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced a host of measures, including immediate release of Rs 1,000 crore as advance to the cash-strapped power corporation.
In an official release here, Jayalalithaa said, to facilitate borrowings by TANGEDCO from Power Finance and Rural Electrification corporations to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore from each of the Centre-owned enterprises, the State government would stand guarantee.
The CM said the State government would also undertake to repay 50 per cent of the short- and medium-term loans — which is Rs 9,529 crore — availed of by the TANGEDCO. This is following deliberations by the Union Finance and Power Ministries over the Chaturvedi Committee Report on Financial Restructuring Plan for Electricity Boards with finance corporations, she noted. In the current fiscal, the State government would also compensate the TANGEDCO of 30 per cent of its estimated revenue loss, which will be Rs 1,294 crore, the CM said.
As a result of a gap of Rs Rs 8,000 crore between revenue and expenditure in TANGEDCO during the DMK regime, at the beginning of the current fiscal, the accumulated loss of EB was Rs 54,500 crore and borrowings were to the tune of Rs 46,500 crore, Jayalalithaa said.
Also, the power utility owed Rs 11,000 crore to power producers besides other contractors. To bail out the EB from the debt trap, the AIADMK government allotted Rs 7,913.45 crore as grant, equity and advances to the TANGEDCO which was unprecedented.
During 2012-13, the State government has already granted a subsidy of Rs 3,020 crore to TANGEDCO and an equity assistance of Rs 1,500 crore to invest in new power projects.
These initiatives aimed at buttressing the finances of TANGEDCO were taken after a high-level meeting chaired by Jayalalithaa on September 14.
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