TOTAL outstanding dues of electricity distribution companies to power producers rose by 4.04 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,21,765 crore in May 2022, according to the official data.

Discoms owed a total of Rs 1,17,026 crore to power generation firms in May 2021, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).

On a sequential basis too, total dues in May 2022 increased from Rs 1,20,954 crore in April 2022. The

PRAAPTI portal was launched in May 2018 to bring transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms.

In May 2022, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 45 days of a grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 1,06,902 crore as against Rs 94,354 crore in the same month a year ago. The overdue amount stood at Rs 1,06,071 crore in April 2022.

Power producers give 45 days to discoms to pay bills for electricity supply. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge interest on that in most cases. To give relief to power generation companies (gencos), the Centre enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1, 2019.

Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply. The Centre had also given some breather to discoms for paying dues to gencos in view of the COVID-19-induced lockdown.