All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) had demanded from central government to come to the rescue of Discoms as they are facing adverse financial implications following complete shut down of industrial, commercial and railways due to lockdown.

AIPEF hs written a letter to Prime Minister that power demand in the state  across  the country has come down by  20 to 30 % and their major source of income from high end earning sources like  railway, industrial and  commercial consumers have been blocked due to shut down.
V K Gupta a spokesperson of AIPEF said that this containment measures have resulted in a sudden fall  in electricity  bill  collections of the DISCOMS by 80% over the last few days.

The sudden fall in collections has resulted in the inability of  DISCOMs to make daily payments not only to generators which in turn is affecting the coal payments and coal transport by  railways, but also debt servicing to banks and financial  institutions. Under these adverse conditions, Discoms may be allowed to defer  LC Payment to private generators until the crisis continues. At all India level, the power demand and supply  has come down by 20%
 due to lockdown.

Daily release of payments to generators and to coal suppliers, will be becoming a challenge for the DISCOMs.  Indequate funding support for the power sector would lead to its failure and unnecessarily impair the economic prosperity of the country once the health crisis has passed.
 RBI may be requested to issue instructions to the banking sector to extend the time to the Discoms for repayment of the debts and interests.