Relief to Telangana; HC stays payment of power supply dues to AP

HYDERABAD: In what would be major relief for Telangana, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday ordered a stay on the payment of power supply dues to Andhra Pradesh. The stay order from the High Court, which heard a petition filed by the Telangana Government, comes in the wake of a recent direction by the Centre asking Telangana to clear power supply dues with interest, amounting to a total of Rs 6,756.92 crores to Andhra Pradesh within a month.

The Union Ministry of Power, in an order dated August 29, 2022, said that the total dues comprised Rs 3,441.78 crores towards principal amount and Rs 3,315.14 towards late payment surcharge, "as per applicable provisions".

Taking strong exception to this, the Telangana Government has filed a petition in the Telangana High Court challenging the Centre's decision.

Post bifurcation of the state, Andhra Pradesh has been supplying electricity to Telangana in exchange for coal supplies from the new state in a barter-like arrangement. But the dispute arose after a certain period of time with both the states claiming charges for the supplies from their respective sides. When Telangana insisted on clearing dues pertaining to the coal supplies, Andhra Pradesh hit back with the counterclaim that Telangana should pay off the dues with regard to the electricity that it supplied to the neighbouring state.

The issue was represented to the Union Government and the Centre needed to arbitrate it with both the sides firmly sticking to their respective stands. After a protracted hearing of contentions from both the sides, the Union Ministry of Power adjudged last month that Telangana should pay off the Rs 6,756.99 crores to Andhra Pradesh while giving one-month time to clear the power supply dues.

Strongly protesting against the Centre's ruling, the Telangana State Government approached the high court for relief with a petition. The hearing on the petition was taken up on Wednesday with Advocate General Ramachander Rao presenting the argument on behalf of Telangana. Concurring with Telangana's contention, the high court stayed the payment of power supply dues to Andhra Pradesh.