Sasan project: CERC to hear R Power's forex plea.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has sought financial details from Reliance Power on the 4000-MW Sasan power plant, following the company seeking relief on account of the steep depreciation of the rupee against the dollar.

R Power had petitioned the regulator that the project cost had risen from Rs. 19,600 crore to Rs. 22,400 crore and that its debt servicing outflow has risen from Rs.12,227 crore to Rs. 16,098 crore, or an addition burden of Rs. 3821 crore on repayment to be made between 2013 and 2017.

This has been worked out taking into account the rupee depreciation index of the Commission.

CERC has directed R Power to submit the details before February 28 with copies to procurers, who have been asked to file their responses before March 15.

R Power should furnish details on its bid assumptions for the normalised tariff of Rs. 1.196 a unit, alongside the different elements, including the escalations factored for each of them.

In addition, the regulator has sought all loan agreements pertaining to both domestic and foreign debt with full details of debt contracted along with interest rates and period of repayment and moratorium.

The Commission also wanted to know the reasons for the swap to foreign currency loans and interest gained by it.

HBL