The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has decided not to raise the Rs 10,000 crore loan from the debt market through bonds and non-convertible debentures.The decision was taken at a meeting of the PSPCL Board of Directors on Wednesday.Highly placed sources in the government told The Tribune that the Board examined that the state power company had managed to raise a bank loan of Rs 5,500 crore, which “for the time being is enough to be used as the working capital”.The move comes amid criticism over the proposal to raise the loan through a merchant banker by paying it an arranger fee of Rs 150 crore to Rs 177 crore. The money was to be raised by the merchant banker without a state government guarantee on the loan. The rationale then given was that the loan was needed to address the liquidity crunch in the power company, caused by delayed subsidy and unpaid power bills.Official sources told The Tribune that the board members were informed at the Wednesday meeting that since banks were willing to extend the loan to the power company without seeking any fees, the bid to raise loan through a merchant banker had become unnecessary.The tender for raising the loan through merchant bankers was floated on June 15 and the technical bids were opened on July 30. The funds were to be raised in two tranches of Rs 5,000 crore each.Three entities, AK Capital Services Ltd, Trust Investment Advisers Pvt Ltd, and Real Growth Securities Pvt Ltd, had bid for being appointed the merchant banker. All three are SEBI Registered Category 1 merchant bankers. The lowest bid was submitted by AK Capital, which asked for an arranger fee of 1.5 per cent of the total fund mobilisation.