• CAG flags variations in AT&C losses shown by Power Ministry

    Expressing concern over implementation of a scheme meant for reducing Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses, Government auditor CAG has flagged variations in figures for these losses in various documents presented by Power Ministry before Parliament.

    In its report tabled in Parliament today, CAG also observed there were instances of diversion of R-APDRP funds and overlapping of schemes were noticed in some states.

    R-APDRP was launched in December 2008 as a continuation of the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP).

    “Variations were noticed in the AT&C losses presented in various documents by the Minter of Power to Parliament. The methodology used for calculating the AT&C losses, though laid down, was not followed uniformly leading to varying estimates of the AT&C losses,” CAG said.

    The programme envisaged sustainable reduction of AT&C losses, establishment of reliable and automated system for collection of accurate base line data, adoption of Information Technology in the area of energy accounting, mapping all power distribution assets, indexing and metering all consumers for better billing efficiency.

    CAG stated that as against Rs 28,424 crore provided for the scheme in the XI and XII Plans periods, only Rs 12,415.04 crore was actually budgeted during 2008-09 to 2014-15 which was only 43.68 per cent of the envisaged amount.

    R APDRP scheme has been subsumed in Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) since December 2014 and no separate budget for R APDRP has been allocated after 2014-15.

    The actual releases during 2008-15 on R-APDRP scheme were only Rs 8,175.45 crore implying slow pace of scheme implementation.

    CAG noted that the counterpart funding (by state) was not tied up by many utilities implementing the scheme within the prescribed period.

    Audit noticed that Power Finance Corp PFC did not maintain records of counterpart funding raised by the utilities from financial Institutions.

    The CAG said that PFC submitted two sets of UCs (utilisation certificates) to the Ministry of Power. One indicating the total disbursement of central funds made by PFC to utilities and the other indicating the utilisation of funds by the utilities as received from them periodically.

    It observed that there was a considerable mismatch between both sets of UCs, UCs furnished by PFC indicated disbursement of Rs 8,606.62 crore while UCs from utilities indicated utilisation of a meagre Rs 4,155.88 crore (49.29 per cent of the total funds released) as on March 2016. Michael Roberts Womens Jersey

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