The National Thermal Power Corporation is responsible for the nation's power needs. It wide scope of operations and its size has placed it among Navratnas, the nine public sector units chosen by the Government who have the potential of becoming global giants. These nine will get special support and autonomy from the Government. In an interview with AMITAV RANJAN, NTPC's chairman and managing director Rajender Singh discussed the future of NTPC. What is hindering the growth of NTPC?

Finances hold the key for the development of infrastructure, more particularly, the power sector. NTPC has been facing the problem of getting full realisation of its dues from the state electricity boards. However, there have been substantial improvement over the years. Five years ago, NTPC was selling power worth Rs 250 crore per month with a recovery rate of 70 per cent. Today, we sell more than Rs 950 crore per month and are able to recover more than 90 per cent.

Is resource constraint the cause of projects being delayed or deferred?

In 1992, NTPC had projects but no money since the World Bank declined to fund the projects saying that NTPC was financially not healthy. All other foreign multilateral bodies followed suit.

Then we decided to supply electricity only against payments and we were successful to improve our internal resources; We were able to to renegotiate the World Bank loan. Subsequently, we got favourable response from Asian Development Bank, OECF for funding our projects.

However, during the time of resource crunch, we were forced to give back some of the projects to the states for implementation and execution: Yamunanagar was handed back to Haryana; Neyveli to Orissa; Mangalore project was given back to Karnataka; Kayamkulam to Kerala.

With internal resource generation at Rs 2,514 crore, NTPC, today, is very well placed to take up projects. And, we are taking back some of the projects for implementation - for example Kayamkulam which we are implementing with aid from the World Bank.

As a matter of fact, we have not raised money from the market in the last three years though we have more than five projects amounting to more than 3,000 MW. With the assistance of Price Waterhouse, we worked out the financial strategy for the next 15 years and, in the worst situation, NTPC should have 10,000 MW in the Ninth and Tenth Five Year Plan period. That is our bottomline.

In addition, we are considering 10 more projects amounting to about 10,000 MW. In any of these programmes, god willing, I do not think financing is going to be a problem. For the 300 MW projects, the finances are tied up. While we are negotiating with the World Bank for the 2,000-MW Talcher (Stage II), the OECF has committed its funds for the 400-MW Faridabad and 1,000-MW Simhadri project. For others, we are negotiating with other financial institutions which have evinced keen interest due to our high internal resource.

What then is the impediment in NTPC's maturity to Navratna?

Finances are no longer impediments to becoming big. But what is really needed is quick clearances: For Anta, Auriya and Kawas, we have everything. They are expansion projects and we have the finances, the land, the expertise and environmental clearances. What we are awaiting is fuel linkages.

This is not to say that we are not worried about non-payment of dues by the SEBs. The position has improved considerably with enormous response from electricity boards in the South and West but we still have problems with some SEBs in the North and East. Take the case of Uttar Pradesh: the supplies are anywhere between Rs 105-110 crore per month, but we are paid a paltry Rs 80 crore. Every month, the dues are mounting by Rs 30 crore and the surcharge thereon.

What about increasing your presence abroad?

As a Navratna, it does not mean that you are only working abroad. It is the size of business you are doing and how efficiently. Today, we are the company which is the largest in terms of the investment in the country. We declared a profit of Rs 1,646 crore and paid an interim dividend of Rs 100 crore.

We have a focus to set standards in the power generation and operational parameters. In the last five years, we achieved a plant load factor of more than 76-77 per cent against 68-69 per cent in the periods prior to that. If deemed generation is included, it would be much more. As a Navratna, if are able to steer through the financial crisis of early Nineties; if we are able to demonstrate to the world that even a public sector undertaking can give you performance of the standards that the independent power producers are talking about, that would be the biggest satisfaction that one could derive and perhaps even give a better accountability.

What about presence abroad?

We are trying to make our presence felt abroad. We are doing some jobs in Dubai and Nepal. We have done the feasibility report for a project in Tanzania and are now preparing the detailed project report. What is required is simplification of procedures for taking up projects abroad and carrying it through. To become a Navratna, what is required is considerable autonomy.

What have been the demands of the NTPC in this front?

In the scheme of Navratnas, one of the issues that we discussed with the government was delegation of powers. What is required to make the boards of the PSUs all-empowered so that the decision-making gets quickened. This is one of the major problem of the PSU is the speed in taking decisions. The essence of doing business is speed, speed and more speed. We have asked for enhancing the investment approval limit to Rs 500 crore, minimising the number of steps in the clearance, giving the board entire authority once the project is approved, etc.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.