Most state electricity boards (SEBs), bar a few, continued to flounder in FY13 despite marginal improvements in commercial and technical losses, says a latest report compiled by Power Finance Corporation (PFC) based on the audits performed by it.
The aggregate net worth of the SEBs turned negative to Rs 46,169 crore in FY13 from Rs 858 crore a year ago.
“Net worth continues to be negative and has reduced to Rs 81,369 crore as on March 31, 2013 due to the losses incurred by utilities,” the report by PFC said.
Even though aggregate losses — without accounting for subsidy — widened a further 3% to Rs 1,05,070 crore in FY13, performance improved significantly over the previous year when the losses had increased nearly 36%.
“Some states such as Sikkim, West Bengal, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Maharashtra earned profits (without subsidy) in FY13 while others like Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh showed a significant reduction in losses (without accounting for subsidy) compared to the year ago”, the report said.
However, usual suspects like Andhra Pradesh (Rs 14,759 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 2,315 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 1,927 crore) and Karnataka (Rs 1,830 crore) dragged overall performance down.
The higher fuel cost was mitigated by higher revenue accruals in states, which was reflected by the stagnant difference between the average cost of supply and average revenue at Rs 1.25 per unit. The utilities, as a whole, continued to lose the same amount for per unit supplied.
On the subsidy side, the amount released by the state government as a percentage of subsidy booked by utilities rose to 97.6% in FY13 from 85.8% a year ago.
“All state governments except Assam, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have released almost the entire subsidy booked by their respective distribution utilities,” the report added.
The overall aggregate technical and commercial losses for utilities selling directly to consumers decreased marginally to 25.38% from 26.63% a
year ago.
