Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V. Senthilbalaji said that the projected revenue of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) will take a hit due to the reduction in tariffs, reported The Hindu.

“With the tariff increase, we expected a Rs 19,000 crore increase in Tangedco’s revenue per year. However, with the reduction of tariffs in certain categories for MSMEs, handloom and powerloom sectors, among others, we are getting an additional revenue of only about Rs 1,000 crore per month (as against the projected Rs 1,583 crore),” the minister said. 

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The state government-owned power generation and distribution PSU (Public Sector Undertaking), Tangedco had revised tariff structure for domestic and other categories that was effective since September this year post the approval from the regulator Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC). TNERC had also allowed for an annual revision of tariffs from hereon. 

The Regulatory Commission had issued the last tariff order in August 2017 due to which the tariff rates are insufficient to cover the rising power purchase costs, the report added. 

Tangedco in the FY2022 registered a net loss of Rs 11,213 crore on the total revenue of Rs 72,096 crore. The loss was however lower than the loss incurred in FY21 of Rs 13,407 crore when the revenue was Rs 63,389 crore.

Tangedco has taken various measures to rationalise costs and improve revenues, the report said citing the minister. Revenue worth Rs 7 crore has been generated from sale of fly ash in FY22 and this year it has doubled at Rs 14 crore. 

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Further, Tangedco’s interest payments towards its Rs 6,600 crore loan from Rural Electrification Corporation have come down from the previous level of Rs 84 crore per year as it has reduced the interest rate from 13 per cent to 10 per cent. 

Meanwhile, Tangedco is also collating details on the damages caused by cyclone Mandous, and they will share the details post the exercise. Notably, it is planning to increase its capacity to 65,000 Megawatt by 2030 from its current total installed capacity of 32,500 MW.