Power Ministry sources dismiss talk that NTPC's actions are politically motivated -- both Bihar and West Bengal are non-BJP States -- pointing out that the dues in both these States add up to more than a full year's payments. In the case of Bihar, for example, dues add up to 15 months payments -- Delhi's dues, though higher than those for Bihar, add up to just 9.7 months bills.

That, however, appears to be somewhat simplistic. For one, the NTPC rules specify that overdues are not to be allowed to exceed two months bills at any point in time. Also, what is nottaken into account is that Delhi also owes the Badarpur Thermal Power Station owned by the Central Government another Rs 6,000 crore.

All told, all the SEBs in the country owe NTPC a total of Rs 8,538 crore, or more than four times the net profit made by NTPC in 1997-98. If realised, the dues are enough to finance a spanking new 2,000 MW power plant.

The delay in dues to NTPC has often forced it to borrow money from external sources which has further added the burden of interest costs. While NTPC has been able to service the loans, timely dues would have made it a far more cash-rich organisation.

The crux of the problem of the overdues, of course, lies in the fact that Indian consumers pay a lot less for power than what it costs to produce it. According to Central Electricity Authority figures, while the average cost of a unit of power was 179.42 paise in 1995-96, the realisation was only 147.81 paise. This means for every unit of power sold, the country lost 31.61 paise.

This is mostly because of thelow tariffs charged from the agriculture sector. The gap between tariff and cost for this sector is 159.21 paise. This means that while the cost of power is 1790.42 paise, the farm sector pays 20.21 paise on an average across the country. As a consequence of this lop-sided tariff policy, the SEBs have been bleeding the state government of crores of rupees.

Other crucial factors like losses in transmission, distribution and theft have added to the losses of SEBs. With the SEBs strapped for cash themselves, it is not surprising that they have not been paying for their power. And because it is politically useful to have low tariffs, the Governments have not been too keen on increasing it. The Central Government hopes that the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions will be able to rationalise tariffs. Until then, power utilities like NTPC will have to keep issuing threats for their money.