MSEDCL to move court against GTL over dues

AURANGABAD/NAGPUR: The MSEDCL will move court to recover the outstanding dues of Rs 100 crore from Aurangabad power franchisee GTL Urja, the power company’s managing director Ajoy Mehta said in Nagpur on Wednesday.
The MSEDCL has already asked GTL Urja to wind up its operations in Aurangabad for defaulting on Rs 396 crore and officials in Aurangabad have said the company will take charge of the city’s power supply on November 17.
Mehta told TOI that only Rs 100 crore is the disputed amount. “We have Rs 150 crore bank guarantee. GTL has done infrastructure works for us worth Rs 100 crore, whose bills we have not paid. In addition consumers of Aurangabad stopped paying bills as soon as they learnt that GTL Urja is quitting. This amount is about Rs 100 crore and we will recover it. The remaining amount is disputed and it will have to be recovered through litigation.”
According to the agreement, every week MSEDCL issued electricity bills to GTL and it paid to the tune of Rs 20 crore.
With this, average of Rs 20 crore per week, GTL Urja has failed to pay electricity bills for 20 weeks.
Meanwhile, it is feared that if the power company fails to recover the dues, consumers in the state will have to bear the burden by way of higher power tariff.