Draft power bill anti-farmer, EPS writes to Modi

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in a DO letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there would be serious difficulties in implementing the DBT in electricity sector and this would work against the interest of farmers and domestic consumers.

“I would like to bring to your kind notice that the proposed amendments to Electricity Act, for which the Ministry of Power has invited the comments of the states, require detailed consultations with the states and other stakeholders. In my letter dated 12.11.2018, it was highlighted that the proposed Bill takes away certain powers of the state and at the same time seeks to bring significant changes in the existing Electricity Act, such as separating carriage and content in the distribution sector, which would make the power utilities in the public sector totally unviable,” the letter read.

According to Palaniswami the Draft Bill seeks to privatise not just the supply of power to the end consumer through franchisees but to also privatise the entire distribution network, which would be highly detrimental to the state utilities.

“It has been the consistent policy of my government that our farmers should receive free power and it should be left with the state to decide the mode of payment of such subsidy,” Palaniswami said.

“I have also pointed out earlier that the proposed Bill seeks to take away the power of the states in deciding the constitution of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, which is against the federal principles of the Constitution. In the draft Bill it has been noticed that not just the same provisions are being retained, but it is also proposed to set up a parallel authority, namely Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority at the Central level to handle all contractual issues, which was hitherto dealt with by the Central and State Electricity Regulatory Commissions. This would unnecessarily dilute the authority of the Electricity Regulatory Commissions and needs to be deleted,” the letter said.