State Bank of India has approached the Supreme Court to implement the recommendations of a committee that had suggested increasing tariffs or waiving a portion of the loan owed by Adani, Tata and Essar Group’s power companies.

SBI has said in it’s affidavit to the SC, “It is relevant to point out that the entire net worth of the three power producers has almost eroded. The monies lent and advanced by the SBI and other banks are at serious and imminent risk. So far as Essar Power Gujarat Ltd is concerned, it is already NPA. The other two companies (Adani & Tata) are servicing their debt but have been addressing letters that they would be constrained to stop operation since they cannot continue to run the plants at loss,” reported the Daily Pioneer

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SBI has also said that they got clearance from the Finance Ministry in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

According to the affidavit, Adani Power in Mundra owes them Rs 19,127 crore, Essar Power Gujarat Ltd owes Rs 4,214 crore and Tata Group’s Costal Gujarat Power Ltd owes Rs 10,159 crore to SBI.

Reportedly, the three power companies have been operating in Gujarat and owe SBI over Rs 35,000 cr. The three companies were barred by the Supreme Court in 2017 from increasing tariffs. The SC had rejected their argument of increase in the price of coal import and had asked them to continue supplying tariffs at the rates decided in the original agreements with the states.

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After this order, the Gujarat government had set up a committee under retired justice RK Agarwal to look into the ailing power sector. The committee had noted that the lender banks of these companies had said that they were “willing to take a haircut” in light of the power sector crisis.