India is planning laws that would boost competition and lower debt at its power distribution companies, but also risks fomenting anger in a country where electricity is often used as an election sweetener.<\/p>\n
Key proposals include allowing more utilities to operate within the same circles, mandating regulators to set tariffs based on market costs, and defining payment procedures and deadlines, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details aren\u2019t yet public. The bill will be presented to parliament in the current session that runs through Aug. 12.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government says the overhaul is essential to unclog a sector that is key to its energy transition ambitions but is choked with $75 billion of debt. Critics say the amendments pave the way for big companies to take over the sector as richer customers would switch to private firms, leaving state-run utilities with users who rely on subsidies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day the bill is presented in the parliament, power industry employees around the country will go on a strike,\u201d said Shailendra Dubey, chairman at the All India Power Engineers Federation, an advocacy body that produces energy policy suggestions. \u201cThis amendment only allows private companies to benefit from the states\u2019 distribution networks and cherry-pick profitable distribution circles.\u201d<\/p>\n
A representative for the Power Ministry didn\u2019t immediately respond to an email outside of business hours Friday. The bill asks regulators to set a ceiling and a floor tariff in areas where two or more suppliers are present in a single distribution circle.<\/p>\n
The matter is contentious because several state governments promise free electricity to lure voters. Politicians then press regulators to prescribe artificially low tariffs or local administrations fail to transfer subsidies; money-losing retailers delay payments to power generators, grid operators and coal suppliers, weakening the entire supply chain.<\/p>\n
Modi last week said unpaid bills amounted to nearly 2.5 trillion rupees, and urged states to clear the dues. State governments say the subsidies protect poor citizens and small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectricity is an essential commodity, which needs to be regulated and managed and cannot be given up to the greed of profit,\u201d said Avik Saha, secretary of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, a farmers\u2019 lobby that has been opposing the bill for months. He said farmers would protest if the bill is pushed through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India is planning laws that would boost competition and lower debt at its power distribution companies, but also risks fomenting anger in a country where electricity is often used as an election sweetener. Key proposals include allowing more utilities to operate within the same circles, mandating regulators to set tariffs based on market costs, and defining payment procedures and deadlines, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details aren\u2019t yet public. The bill will be presented to parliament in the current session that runs through Aug. 12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}