Words like ‘Bundling’ and ‘Pooling’ are being freely used by the power ministry without realising that worldwide the governments including India have moved away from such opaque subsidy models which have long ago become outdated. Examples of USO Fund in telecom, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in schemes like gas subsidy, etc., are before us in India.
Ignoring these realities, the power ministry is working on “Pooling” of gas for gas based power plants. Similarly, it is “Bundling” coal based thermal power with solar power. The result of such moves would be re-introducing opaque method of subsidies that will ruin the sector in long run.
