UDAY: Discoms’ AT and C losses rise again
Defying the intent of the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) aimed at improving the financial health of debt-laden electricity distribution companies (discoms), the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of these entities have shot up over the past year after a gradual achieved since FY15. According to the UDAY portal, AT&C losses reported by 24 states were 23% at Q3FY18, compared with 20.3% in FY17. With this, meeting the key UDAY target of reducing the AT&C losses to 15% by FY19 now looks very unlikely.Apart from the usual suspects such as Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the major states with high AT&C losses now include Punjab, traditionally known for low pilferage and theft. Its AT&C losses have shot up dramatically fro.....