Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today mentioned that the financial health of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is one of the biggest challenges to the State government.
Speaking to media persons here today, Sangma mentioned that during his recent visit to New Delhi, discussions were held with Union Power Minister R K Singh on the MeECL crisis including the loans taken from central agencies besides other dues related to NTPC or the NHPC.
“Our visit to Delhi was to seek the support of the Power Minister and find out ways in which we can move forward. There are multiple loans that we have taken and some of them were taken at a very high interest rate. And therefore, we had discussions and meetings with NHPC in the presence of the minister, whether those interest rates could be adjusted and reduced. We figured out how to do it and we are expecting that the interest rate will be reduced for certain loans where interest rate was pretty high,” Sangma informed.
He also said that for the case of NTPC, an agreement was signed a long time back where the power purchase was compulsory and fixed charges were put in which meant that even if MeECL did not draw power from NTPC, the State still had to pay a certain amount of money to NTPC.
“The Meghalaya government has figured out and discussed with NTPC, in the presence of the Power Minister, how they could have a better understanding in this entire issue and how they could resolve this issue. We will continue this process and try to streamline different areas so that we can bring back the financial health of MeECL,” Sangma added.
