Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday) is slowly putting the ailing state power distribution companies back in shape and reducing the duration of blackouts in the nearly two years since its beginning. The Ministry of Power has stated that the combined losses of state-run power utilities in 26 states and the Union territory of Puducherry in 2016-17 fell 21.5% from a year ago to Rs 40,295 crore. The Ministry further said that there has been a 46 per cent fall in CPSU dues from June 2016 to May 2017.
Data presented on review of 'Uday' showed major improvements in the key parameters on which health of discoms are judged. According to data submitted by state governments, the estimated dues of Discoms stood at Rs 15,158 crore in June 2016, which got reduced to Rs 13,005 crore in January 2017 and further to Rs 8,159 crore in May 2017.
At an overall level, the ACS-ARR gap reduced from 59 paisa per unit in 2016-2017 to about 45 paisa per unit at present. Simultaneously, the average AT&C loss for all states that signed up for UDAY came down to 20% this fiscal. The government has also stated that the average duration of power cuts declined 61% to 7.45 hours a month in May this year from 19.38 hours in the year-ago period. The UDAY scheme allowed state governments to take over half the outstanding debt of utilities in 2015-16 and another 25% in 2016-17. The remaining was to be refinanced by the distribution companies through state-guaranteed bonds, which would help them reduce interest cost.
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