Govt issues draft bidding guidelines for discom privatisation

The Union power ministry on Tuesday released a draft of the standard bidding guidelines for the privatisation of discoms. The Centre has been pushing state-run power distribution companies (discoms) to increase private sector participation to achieve higher efficiency. The guidelines are expected to provide a template format for all the states whenever they offer their discoms to private players through competitive bidding.

According to the draft, the highest bidder “shall be provided with a clean balance sheet, free of accumulated losses/unserviceable liabilities” of the discoms. It also proposed that existing assets of the distribution licensee, other than land, would be transferred to the highest bidder according to rates determined by state power regulators.