The 23rd meeting of the State Advisory Committee for Manipur cum tariff petition public hearing of Manipur State Power Distribution Company Limited (MSPDCL) began on Tuesday at the Hotel Classic Regency Hall, organised by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for Manipur and Mizoram.
JERC (Manipur & Mizoram) chairperson R Thanga, member L Pachuau, MSPCL managing director N Sarat and MSPDCL managing director Ng Subhashchandra attended the programme as presidium members.
Confirmation of the minutes of SAC Manipur meeting held in March 2022 annexure 'A', action taken report on the minutes of 22nd meeting of SAC Manipur, determination of ARR and retail tariff of MSPDCL for FY 2023-24, and increasing trend of closing debtor among others were discussed during the meeting.
During the meeting, Lalchharliana Pachuau, member of the commission, clarified that auditing of annual accounts is very much important so as to know the fiscal health of the companies that if the companies are healthy 1/3 of their profit has to be passed on to the consumers. Likewise, 1/3 of their losses will also be passed on to the consumers if the company is going on a loss. That is why, turning up of accounts is very necessary to check the health conditions of the companies.
The Managing Director of MSPCL, N Sarat Singh, informed the committee that audited statements could not be done on time due to the time taken by the auditors and has assured the committee that from now onwards auditing of accounts would be done regularly.
R Thanga, chairman of the committee also informed the 2 (two) companies to make earnest effort on this matter and the committee fixed June, 2022 to clear up all matters pertaining to auditing of accounts.
It also noted that MSPCL and MSPDCL have not filed True-up petitions for the FY 2015-16 onwards for want of audited annual accounts.
MSPDCL replied that the audited financial statements starting from FY 2016-17 to FY 2020-21 have been published on 14.2.2022.
MSPCL also replied that the accounts for the financial years 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 had already been finalized and approved in the Board of Directors meeting held on 17/08/2021. Likewise, the account for the financial year 2020-2021 had already been finalized and approved in the Board of Directors meeting held on 12/11/2021. Further, the statutory auditor had already submitted the Accounts to Accountant General, Manipur and requested the AG office for conducting the supplementary audit.
Accordingly, the supplementary audit is at present, being conducted for financial years 2016-17, 2017 - 18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020 2021 by the audit team, AG office Manipur. It is therefore not possible to file actual true up petitions until the ongoing supplementary audit is completed and the financial statements are approved by the AG, Manipur.
Therefore, the company requested to allow them to file the actual true up petitions after finalization of the audit.
MSPDCL submitted that the company has not implemented the Franchisee system in rural areas due to non-availability of Agencies in those areas. However, MSPDCL is currently installing Prepaid Meters and Vending Counters in those rural areas to address the issue. Accurate loss derivation is not possible at present due to the lack of complete and precise metering. After full implementation SAMAST scheme losses at various voltage levels may be ascertained. As of now, LOA of the SAMAST Scheme has been placed by NERCP on 23/09/2021 and works have been started. And as per LOA, work will be completed by March, 2023. Based on the limited data available at their disposal, few transmission and sub-transmission lines as well as few 132/33kV and 33/11kV substations are identified as sample elements for loss estimation for the respective voltage level. Using these sample elements, total loss of 132kV and 33kV system is calculated as 7.8% for the FY 2021-22.
It may be mentioned that during the meeting, the committee asked the MSPDCL to give a report of outstanding dues payment and up-to-date status (latest compilation) of state government departments outstanding dues for further deliberation. And, also MSPCL to give up-to-date status of works of SAMAST scheme. MSPCL may also kindly give a report of energy loss estimation at 132 kV level and 33 kV level during FY 2022-23 for further deliberation.
