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Rising revenue gap: Over 40% of power UPPCL sold till June remains unpaid
UPPCL faces 40% power payment loss, seeks tariff hike to cover ₹12,000-crore revenue gap. Uninterrupted power, theft, and poor billing efficiency fuel the losses.
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Despite all efforts, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has been unable to curb escalating commercial and technical losses even as it seeks a tariff hike from the regulator to address the around- ₹12,000-crore revenue gap for the current financial year.
According to the Corporation’s own data, these losses have surged by approximately 7% as of June this year, compared to the same period last year, peaking to a whopping 40.04% at present: meaning, the UPPCL received no payment for over 40% of the power it supplied to consumers across the state.
One of the primary reasons for the increase in the aggregate technical and commercial (ATC) losses over the previous year is the uninterrupted 24x7 power supply that was maintained during the three months of the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
“For the UPPCL, providing more power to people, especially in villages, means incurring more losses due to poor revenue recovery. So, supplying uninterrupted power during elections naturally added to the losses,” a senior UPPCL official said.
“Additionally, rampant theft of electricity, inefficient billing processes, presence of defective meters, poor revenue realisation, especially from villages, delayed bill payments by some government departments, etc, contribute to the corporation’s mounting losses,” he added.
During a review meeting of all discoms by UPPCL chairman Ashish Kumar Goyel on August 7, it was found that the UPPCL’s ATC losses that were 33.07% (already high) up to June 2023, rose to 40.04% during the same period of the current financial year, the increase being by 6.97%.
Among the discoms, the Varanasi discom reported the highest losses at 52.37% followed by 42% by the Agra discom, 35.42% by the Meerut discom, 34.27% by the Lucknow discom and 20.94% by the KESCO, the company that caters to urban consumers.
However, the increase in losses over the previous year was registered to be the highest by the Agra discom at 9.94%. The losses in the Lucknow discom rose by 9.46%, the second highest, followed by 6.19% in the Varanasi discom, 5.75% in the Meerut discom and 4.27% in the KESCO.
In the electricity division-II Baraut in Baghpat, the ATC losses were found to be as high as 54.53% that too after decreasing by 8.02% this year. The Amroha division reported losses to be 54.98% with an increase by 37.15%. The Greater Noida division also reported high ATC losses at 49.22%.
The UPPCL’s distribution losses that largely indicate theft of electricity were found to be 21.75%. The highest distribution losses (read power theft) was reported by the Meerut discom at 22.74%.
“The ATC losses that include distribution losses too, should ideally be less than 10% for any power utility to be viable,” the official pointed out.
The increase in losses comes at a time when the UPPCL is looking to the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) for a tariff increase to bridge its substantial revenue shortfall.
The UPERC has to decide whether it should pass discoms’ inefficiency on to consumers by increasing the tariff or direct discoms to deal with the shortfall by plugging theft, improving billing efficiency and streamlining revenue recovery. The commission is expected to announce the new tariff next month.
