New Delhi, Feb 14: Reliance Infrastructure-backed discom BSES has been sanctioned a loan of Rs 5,000 crore by IDBI Bank and the amount will be used by the company to pay up its outstanding dues to a number of power generation and transmission utilities.
The loan has been granted by the bank after the discom deposited a security deposit of Rs 1,020 crore. “BSES has informed us that a loan of Rs 5,000 crore has been granted to it by the IDBI bank,” Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) Chairman P D Sudhakar told PTI.
He said the company has already started paying its outstanding dues to some of the generation and transmission companies.
In November, citing severe financial crisis, BSES had informed DERC that it would not be able to pay dues to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore to power generation and transmission utilities including NTPC.
Delhi government, which has 49 per cent stake in BSES, had initially refused to help the company but later agreed to infuse a fresh equity of Rs 500 crore to help it get a loan of Rs 5,000 crore.
As per the understanding, Reliance Infrastructure infused Rs 520 crore and the total amount of Rs 1,020 crore was deposited with IDBI Bank as security deposit for getting the loan.
The bank had conditioned granting the loan to BSES arranging at least 20 per cent of the total amount.
“The discom has conveyed to us that it has made bulk of the payments to power generation and transmission companies,” Sudhakar said.
Earlier this month, DERC had effected a five per cent hike in power tariff to adjust the power purchase cost of the discoms which have been demanding a steep hike in rates citing increasing power purchase cost.
