Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 18: All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) strongly opposed the Union Government’s major decision to privatize electricity distribution in the eight Union Territories amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The Power Departments of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Puducherry is among those UTs which are to be privatized.
V K Gupta spokesperson AIPEF said that the Government is using lockdown as an opportunity to privatize the power departments of the Union Territories bypassing the public opinion and giving any time to stakeholders to discuss the issue.
The Power Departments in all the UTs have been forced to appoint the consultants and complete the process during the lockdown period. Chandigarh Electricity Department is a profit-making utility with very low transmission and commercial losses.
The Central Government is grossly misleading the public by saying that the electricity will be cheaper after privatization. Post-privatization the private discoms are allowed to take a minimum of 16 percent profit, which would push the power tariff to almost Rs 8 per unit for consumers. The Central Government was looking at abolishing the subsidy and cross-subsidy in the supply of electricity, which would make the commodity more expensive for the general consumer categories and cheaper for industrial consumers.
The Government pushed the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 and give a deadline so that no stakeholders, especially the states, could be able to oppose it in the middle of the healthcare crisis.
The Centre’s Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which emerged on April 17, 2020, raised several concerns over increasing centralization and protecting private interests. The Centre’s May 16 decision is aimed at privatizing profit, which will lead to further losses in the public sector undertakings.
This loss will eventually come to common consumers by way of the tariff hike. Besides this, the bill proposes three major changes. It suggests ending the present form of subsidy and cross-subsidy. Second, it allows private players in electricity distribution by way of sub-licensee and franchisee. Third, it creates an Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority (ECEA).
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