We Are Working On A New Electricity Act: Minister

We cannot have a sustainable power system if we run into huge losses, says RK Singh

- Richa Mishra/Twesh Mishra

RICHA MISHRA/TWESH MISHRA

The Electricity Act of the country must be legislation that provides for the rights of all stakeholders, says RK Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Power and New and Renewable Energy. Keeping this mind, Singh and his team in the Power Ministry are working on a new Act.

“The main focus of the new law would be enhancing the rights of all the stakeholders,” he said.

Singh, who is also formulating a new tariff policy, in his second stint as Power Minister, is by now well versed with the challenges including negotiating with the State governments. In conversation with BusinessLine, he said

“Discoms cannot pass on their inefficiencies to consumers by levying higher tariffs. The cross-subsidy needs to come down.”

Excerpts:

By when can we expect the tariff policy and what was the trigger for it?

It is awaiting Cabinet nod. We need to have a reliable, sustainable power system to be a developed country. We also need to put in a different orientation for consumers in the Statute books. Under the proposal the consumer has rights and they have to be listed out with the remedies a consumer can have.

Also, the system has to be sustainable. We cannot be sustainable if we run huge losses if investments do not come, and if there is no ease of doing business. The investor’s first concern is payments. We have addressed this by enforcing the letter of credits before power dispatch.

The second is, suppose the coal price goes up and the project does not get a pass-through for ages, the investor ends up making a loss. So, to ensure ease of doing business the pass-through has to happen in a specific period. These will all be a part of the tariff policy.