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• In the first hearing held at the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission after the Delhi government agreed to infuse equity worth Rs 500 crore in the cash-strapped BSES companies, the regulator asked them to explain their payment schedule and how they would pay off outstanding debts to the power generators like NTPC, NHPC etc.The commission (DERC) also specified that any payment mechanism adopted by the BSES discoms would need to be approved by the generators.The BSES discoms informed DERC that their loan application for Rs 5,100 crore had been put on the fast-track and they expected to get the approval within a week. The lending bank said the discoms would get the money in phases. The bank would give Rs 3,460 crore to the discoms in the first phase, which would be used to pay large outstanding dues, the most urgent being the dues to the state-run NTPC, sources said.

• NTPC has given the discoms time till the end of January first week to clear their dues or face disconnection of power sup ply. "The first concern is that discoms have to clear dues and get approval from generators over their payment mechanism. After defaulting on so many payments, there are obviously some doubts on whether the discoms would pay back dues in full. The companies have to get generating companies to agree to their payment plan and get their support," said an official.The discoms were also supposed to submit their tariff petitions for the financial year 2012-13 by Monday but source said they had sought more time. Along with tariff revision petitions, the discoms will also file true-up petitions. The true-ups for 2010-11 for all three discoms amount to approximately Rs 3,000 crore, which has to be recovered in future years, clearly hinting at more tariff hikes for Delhiites.

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