Keeping in mind the current financial distress of the country’s electricity distribution companies (discoms), power minister RK Singh has asked the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to integrate the upcoming tariff policy’s proposed procedural reforms in its final ‘distribution perspective plan’. The initial version of the perspective plan, floated by CEA in June 2018, was a set of guidelines to help discoms choose appropriate technologies for infrastructure development.
The minister wants the new perspective plan to also include power sector ‘Reforms 2.0’, which sources say, are managerial suggestions — such as franchisee business model. This would allow discoms to improve their accounts. Financial losses of these firms have increased 44% annually to Rs 21,658 crore at the end of FY19.
