All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) urges Centre to defer the proposed Electricity Amendment Bill
TNN Bureau. Updated: 10/21/2017 1:36:13 PM
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All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the Narendra Modi government to put on hold the proposed electricity amendment bill till it is discussed in detail with all the states and other stake holders including power engineers and power workers and their concerns addressed. AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey in a letter to Union Power Minister R K Singh has expressed his concern on news paper reports that Central Governmebt has decided to pass Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014 in coming winter session of parliament.
Mr Dubey has also demanded review of power policies of last two decades before going on for any further amendments & experiments in already ailing power sector due to wrong energy policies of state and central Government. He has written in letter to Power Minister here on Saturday that Federation has already submitted memorandum of objections on Electricity (Amendment ) Bill to the Ministry of Power and this must be discussed in detail by the Ministry of Power with its representatives before placing it before the parliament in coming winter session. Whereas the Electricity Act 2003 was enacted for restoring the financial health of power sector but this Act has failed to achieve its objectives resulting in more than Rs 9 lakh crore losses and debt of DISCOMS.
Without analyzing the causes and circumstances of failure to achieve its objective, the Government of India is undertaking an exercise to introduce more amendments which would surely deteriorate the already precarious financial health of the State DISCOMS. It is recognized and accepted without dispute that the State DISCOMS of the country as a whole are in poor financial health with accumulated debt and losses of the previous years.
The UDAY Scheme by which the State Governments have owned the responsibility to improve financial condition of the State DISCOMS and to start with taking over of the outstanding debts of the DISCOMS in a phased and time bound manner has also not yet yielded desired results. Under these circumstances, to introduce the concept of Supply Licensee so as to separate out carriage and content, it would lead to exodus of high paying and profitable consumers to the private licensees while putting the extra burden on the state owned supply licensee, the letter said
Updated On 10/21/2017 1:37:32 PM