GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 554
TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.03.2016
Exposure of PSBs to DISCOMS

554. Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar 

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:-

(a) the total percentage of Non-Performing Assets contributed by DISCOMS in Public Sector Banks;

(b) details of amount of loans advanced by PSBs to DISCOMS in Financial Year 2014-15;

(c) details of total financing by PSBs to the winning coal bidders, and therefore, the exposure of the PSBs to the coal sector in the last one year;

(d) whether it is a fact that power projects amounting to 46,000 megawatts are facing viability issues due to lack of long-term buyers for electricity and inadequate fuel supply; and

(e) if so, steps taken or proposed to be taken by Government in this regard?

Answer
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

(a)& (b): The total percentage of Non-Performing Assets contributed by DISCOMS (Electricity generation-transportation and distribution ) in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) is 4.10% as on March, 2015. PSBs advance as on March, 2015 is Rs. 4,82,451 crore.

(c) to (e) : The Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) have given Bank Guarantee to 28 coal blocks. The total exposure of PSBs to Coal Sector is Rs. 4,322 crore as on Dec, 2015.
It was reported that the power projects were facing problems on account of (i) Tariff under-recovery (ii) Inadequate feedstock and poor electricity offtake by Discoms (iii) Dwindling fuel supplies from the Krishna-Godavari basin.
To address the same Government has launched Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) that focuses on strengthening financial and operational aspects of Discoms, enabling quarterly tariff increase, improving operational efficiency, lower cost of power, take-over of 75% state Discom debt by state governments.
For gas-based power projects, the government has started auctioning Re-gasified Liquified Natural Gas (RLNG) along with Power Sector Development Fund (PSDF) support to stranded power projects in June 2015. An amount of Rs.7,500 crore has been earmarked as PSDF support for two years.
To ease the coal supply issue for the power generation companies and introduce transparency, Government has started allocating coal mines through reverse e-auction last year. The government has already allocated more than 100 coal mines to private and government sector companies.
E-auction of coal for power projects has been introduced, where two rounds of e-auction for power plants have been carried out. For power plants having long-term and medium-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) the reserve price was set at 20% (of the Coal India Limited (CIL) notified price)) plus the CIL notified price for the power sector and for short-term PPAs or no PPAs at all, the price was set at 40% plus the CIL notified price. This move is expected to reduce coal shortage for power plants without long term linkage.