BAL issue: Government defends Nesco

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Monday defended Nesco, one of the three subsidiaries of the Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL) in power distribution business, which is accused of showing undue favour to a power-intensive company. ‘’The allegation that Balasore Alloys Limited (BAL), a defaulter of  Rs 161 crore, is being allowed to get away by Nesco is not correct,’’ Minister of State for Energy Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak told the Assembly.He was replying to a call-attention notice by Ananta Das, Rajanikanta Singh and Prafulla Chandra Mallik basing on a report published in this paper on December 8.  Being an export-oriented company, BAL was enjoying concessional tariff since the OSEB (Orissa State Electricity Board) days. After Nesco came into existence, a dispute on concessional tariff was raised by the private utility, the Minister said.As BAL disputed the retail tariff, a settlement was arrived at in 2004-05 with the company. As per the settlement, the company was asked to pay Rs 38 crore in instalments. Though the company paid the entire amount, it did not adhere to the time frame and some other conditions in toto. The settlement was cancelled by Nesco, the Minister said. The distribution company served disconnection notice to BAL on December 16, 2010, against which the latter moved the Orissa High Court. The HC asked BAL to approach the grievance redressal forum of Nesco. But the company approached the Nesco management for an amicable settlement.On the representation of BAL, Nesco constituted a board-level committee to examine the case and submit a report to the Board of Directors. The settlement process is on, the Minister said.The Minister said Nesco had issued several disconnection notices to BAL and the last notice was issued on December 16. Since BAL is paying the current bill, excluding the delayed payment surcharge, the disconnection notice was not carried out.