With no amount of government largesse or fiscally expensive financial re-engineering producing the desired result of salvaging the electricity discoms from being perennial defaulters caught in debt trap, the government has decided to make the terms for the latest scheme announced in the Budget FY22 stricter and non-bendable. It is also fast-tracking a plan to usher in real competition in the electricity distribution space.
The promised grants to state-run discoms under the Rs 3.1-lakh-crore scheme unveiled in the Budget would get converted into loans, unless they met the parameters aimed at reducing their sticky losses, Union power minister RK Singh told FE. The minister also said he intended to introduce a Bill to amend the Electricity Act in the ongoing session of Parliament, to enable operations of multiple discoms in any area and end the current monopoly regime in the power distribution business.
