Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY)

Ministry of Power, GoI launched Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) which was approved by Union Cabinet on 5th November, 2015.

Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India (DISCOMs) initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power distribution is in. It allows state governments, which own the DISCOMs, to take over 75 percent of their debt as of September 30, 2015, and pay back lenders by selling bonds. DISCOMs are expected to issue bonds for the remaining 25 percent of their debt.

The scheme was announced by Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (Now Railway minister and coal minister) in November 2015. The scheme is optional for the states to join. Jharkhand became the first state to come under uday scheme. Other states that have given their in-principle approval are Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Assam.

 

The scheme envisages:

Financial Turnaround

Operational improvement

Reduction of cost of generation of power

Development of Renewable Energy

Energy efficiency & conservation

 

Salient Features of the Scheme

For Financial Turnaround

States will take over 75% of the DISCOM debt as on Sept 30, 2015 - 50% in FY 2015-16 and 25% in FY 2016-17.

States to issue non-SLR including SDL bonds, to take over debt and transfer the proceeds to DISCOMs in a mix of grant, loan, equity.

 Maturity period of bonds - 10-15 years.

Moratorium period – up to 5 years.

Rate - G-sec plus 0.5% spread plus 0.25% spread for non-SLR.

Borrowing not to be included for calculating fiscal deficit of the State.

 

Achieving Financial Turnaround

Balance 25% of debt to remain with the DISCOMs in the following manner:

Issued as State-backed DISCOM bonds; or

Re-priced by Banks/FIs at interest rate not more than bank base rate + 0.10%

States to take over future losses of DISCOMs as per trajectory in a graded manner.

[0% of loss of 14-15 & 15-16; 5% of 16-17; 10% of 17-18; 25% of 18-19 & 50% of 2019-20]

Balance losses to be financed through State bonds or DISCOM bonds backed by State Govt guarantee, to the extent of loss trajectory finalised with MoP.

Jharkhand and J&K given special dispensation for take over of outstanding CPSU dues

 

Impact of the Scheme

Financially & Operationally sound DISCOMs

Increased demand for power

Improvement in PLF of generating plants

Reduction in stressed assets

Availability of cheaper funds

Increased capital investment

Development of Renewable Energy sector