Losses by India’s power retailers are set to rise, reversing two years of declines they enjoyed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unveiled a plan to make the ailing utilities profitable.
Combined losses by state distributors that signed up for the federal government’s reform plan in the first nine months of the fiscal year rose to about Rs 24,000 crore ($3.4 billion), a 62 per cent jump from a year earlier, amid an increase in coal and power costs, according to Ajay Kumar Bhalla, India’s power secretary.
“We may not have achieved targets, but we feel we have done well,” Bhalla said, pointing to success installing new meters and improving billing and payment collections. “Structural issues have been addressed, and we expect them to yield positive results.”
