The Hindu Business Line : Rain Calcining sees Rs 36-cr hit from new wheeling charges

RAIN Calcining Ltd (RCL), the Visakhapatnam-based Rs 300-crore producer of calcined petroleum coke and power, which till recently was hopeful of coming out of red, now expects to suffer a negative impact of around Rs 36 crore per annum owing to the new power wheeling charges announced by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC).

The company was hoping to better its performance due to the concessions granted by financial institutions through a recent debt-restructuring package.

Earlier, having set up a 3-lakh-tonne per annum calcined petroleum coke and 41 MW power generation unit at a cost of Rs 390 crore, the company entered into a power wheeling and purchase agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (APTransco) valid for a period of 30 years.

In a press release here on Thursday, the company said .

if the recent changes in wheeling charges of 50 paise in cash per kilowatt of wheeled energy and compensation in kind for system losses of 28.4 per cent were made applicable to RCL, the company would have to incur an additional cost of Re 1 per kilowatt of wheeled energy, resulting in a negative impact of Rs 36 crore per annum.

``This will severely affect the competitiveness of RCL in the international arena. RCL already has accumulated losses of Rs 43.33 crore as on March 31, 2001,'' the release said.

The new power wheeling charges would negate the entire positive impact that was expected to be generated by the debt restructuring package approved by the financial institutions led by the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) considering the losses suffered by the company and the all round fall in interest rates.

The company was successful in recording a turnaround in its operations during 2000-01 by posting a net profit of Rs 9.15 crore on a total turnover of Rs 299.6 crore.

Its accumulated losses stood at Rs 43.44 crore as on March 31, 2001 on an equity base of Rs 129.49 crore.

RCL's total secured debt burden amounted to Rs 255.86 crore by the end of 2001 as against Rs 272.58 crore in the previous year.

Of the outstanding secured loans, the foreign currency loan from the International Finance Corporation stood at Rs 83.14 crore, while the rupee term loan of IDBI was Rs 98 crore.

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