Pending bills turn into major burden for Singareni

Singareni Collieries Company Limited is facing financial stress due to pending bills worth over Rs 21,000 crore from power generation units. Delayed payments, rising costs and fund diversion concerns may impact salaries, welfare activities and future expansion plans.

Peddapalli: Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), which is excelling in coal production and entering new fields, is reportedly facing troubles due to pending bills. It has become a burden for SCCL as power generation units of various states are delaying the clearance of pending bills.

Power production units, which are purchasing coal from SCCL for thermal power generation, are showing negligence in paying bills. As a result, about Rs 21,303 crore of bills are pending with various power units. The highest amount of Rs 18,827 crore is pending with TSGENCO.

---

The biggest customer of Singareni, GENCO, is not clearing bills regularly. The amount of pending bills rose to Rs 14,532 crore in 2024-25 from Rs 1,958 crore in 2014-15. It increased to Rs 18,827 crore by December 2025.

On average, GENCO is purchasing 11 million to 14 million metric tonnes from Singareni every year. But payments have not been made regularly. Rs 7,758 crore was paid during the BRS regime in 2022-23.

Besides TSGENCO, power generation units of AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have also not paid bills regularly.

AP GENCO has to pay Rs 1,532 crore, followed by Karnataka Power (KPCL) with Rs 452 crore, Mahagenco with Rs 416 crore and Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) with Rs 75 crore.

So, the company is facing financial troubles due to pending bills, apart from an increase in production cost. If this situation continues, there will be a shortfall of funds to pay salaries, welfare funds, maintain mines and expand new projects, employees opined.

On the other hand, diversion of SCCL’s money for other purposes by the governments is also becoming a burden for the company. The reported allocation of Rs 10 crore of Singareni funds for organising a football match of Messi created a flutter. Employees and unions have urged the governments to take initiatives to clear pending bills.