KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Jammu and Kashmir government has failed to recover more than Rs 1072.75 crores outstanding on account of water usage charges from its own power generating company State Power Development Corporation (PDC).
According to documents available with Kashmir News Service (KNS) the PDC had deposited an amount of Rs 20 crore in the in the state treasury against the total bills raised to the tune of Rs 1092.75 crores as on September 2013.
The document reads that while both National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and the Jammu Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) which are exploiting state water resources to generate electricity have been against the water usage charges, under section 185 A of the J&K Water Resource Regularity and Management Act, 201O, the Government is authorized to charge them.
“The law was enacted by the state legislature in 2010 and as per the act every company running the hydro electric projects in the J&K have s to deposit water usage charges with the state Government. The NHPC and the PDC are two main hydroelectric power generating companies in the Jammu and Kashmir state,” the document reads.
Meanwhile, sources told KNS the PDC has been reluctant to pay the charges because its power generating capacity is nearly half of NHPC projects. “The PDC presently owns around 20 hydroelectric projects with installed capacity of 758.70 MW, including 450 MW Baghliar project. With less power generation capacity, the Corporation is finding it difficult to pay the charges which could make the power generation non-viable for the Corporation,” they said.
The revenue generated from water usage charges is directly deposited in state government’s account managed by Finance Secretary and the funds are utilized only for construction of Hydel projects, hydroelectric projects, multipurpose hydroelectric projects and irrigation projects besides laying Transmission and Distribution lines.
Sources told KNS that out of the charges collected in the fund Account so far, around Rs 100 crores was released from this account to the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited (CVPPL) which represents joint venture of NHPC, JKSPDC and PTC (India) Limited for execution of three Hydroelectric Projects including Pakal Dul, Kiru and Kawar with aggregate capacity of 2220 MW.
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