The Aam Aadmi Party government has directed Reliance Infra-backed BSES power distribution companies to immediately clear dues of about Rs 6,000 crore to Delhi Transco Ltd and two state-run generation companies.

Top officials in the Delhi government said BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power have been ignoring notices by the power department to pay the dues and it might now consider “punitive action” against the two discoms.

They said both discoms have to pay about Rs 4,500 crore to Delhi government-run power companies, Indraprastha Power Generation and Pragati Power Corporation, for supplying power in the past five years.

The two power generation companies supply around 800 Mw of power to BSES daily.

Also, the official said the two discoms had also failed to clear dues of Rs 1,500 crore to Delhi Transco Ltd for using its network. Delhi Transco maintains all major power transmission networks in the city and discoms have to pay it for using the network. “Both BSES discoms owe a total of around Rs 6,000 crore to government-run power companies. We are exploring options to recover the dues,” said the official.

Another senior official said the financial health of the three state companies had deteriorated because of non-payment.

He said Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd had been making regular payments to all three government-run companies.

BSES has been maintaining it was going through a difficult financial condition and had not been allowed to recover around Rs 10,000 crore in losses due to increase in power purchase cost and low rates.