Power employees observe Black Day in protest
LUCKNOW The draft Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020 mooted by the union ministry of power has evoked sharp reactions from different stakeholders for different reasons. UP’s power employees even observed a ‘Black Day’ on Monday, joining the countrywide protest against the move.
The Bill intends to address some issues related to the power sector, including rationalising tariff by eliminating cross-subsidisation.
This is the second draft Bill circulated in the last couple of years.
However, despite being well intentioned, many stakeholders and experts believe that the draft bill, if adopted as legislation in the present form, may create more problems than solutions.
They argue that for any reforms to succeed, besides its contents, timing of its introduction and sequence of activities proposed to be carried, are very critical.
“The Draft Act, for example, proposes this to be mandatory for discoms to purchase specified quantum of hydro power with the provision for penalty in the event of non-fulfillment of the obligation,” said SK Agrawal, former director, UP Power Corporation Ltd, (finance).
“But the demand for power is not increasing in the country, including UP, and many power projects have become NPAs. This is not the right time to ask the discoms to procure a specified share of power from hydro projects at the cost of surplus thermal capacity,” he argued.
Terming the proposal as “antifarmers” and “anti-domestic consumers”, All-India Power Engineers’ Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey said the Bill paved the way for privatisation of the entire power sector from backdoor through franchisees.
“After its passage, farmers will have to pay a monthly power tariff of Rs 5 to 6 per unit, while domestic consumers will have to pay at least Rs 8 to 10 per unit for consumption of up to 300 units per month,” he claimed.
Dubey said 1.5 million power employees and engineers across the country, including one lakh in UP, joined hands on Monday to organise protest demonstrations while maintaining social distance.
UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Awadhesh Kumar Verma said: “I will prove the Bill is anti-people.”
The fear of the Bill (if converted into the Act) giving a “tariff shock’ to farmers and domestic consumers emanates from the draft proposal that seeks to do away with subsidies to consumers.
“The proposal that the retail tariff determination for discoms will be done without taking into account the amount of subsidy a state provides for certain class of consumers means all consumers will be billed at cost of service with the subsidy to be transferred to the beneficiaries’ account through the DBT, said Agrawal.
He said if consumers got cash subsidies, they might utilize the same to meet their other expenses rather than pay electricity bills.
“At present, regulators revise power tariff after consultations and public hearings. But if the Bill is passed, the tariff determination will be done through a tariff policy framed by central government without any prior consultation with stakeholders,” said a UPERC official.
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