Atnanirbhar Bharat Power Departmen ts in uts including Delhi to be Privatised
In an announcement that could have an effect on electricity charges in the union territories, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Saturday that power departments and utilities in all the centrally-administered territories would be privatised.
Announcing the significant reform in the power distribution sector, Sitharaman said that the proposed move would lead to better service to consumers and improvement in operational and financial efficiency in distribution.
The finance minister said that decision was guided by 'sub-optimal' utilisation of performance of power distribution and supply'.
She said that the move to that effect would provide a model for emulation by other utilities across the country, in what could be an indicator of what's in the pipeline for utilities in other states as well.
Sitharaman said that the privation reform was in line with the tariff policy reforms and would help in enhancing consumer rights, promote industry and improve the overall sustainability of the sector.
Dwelling on consumer rights, she said that ‘inefficiencies’ of discoms shouldn’t be allowed to burden the consumers and there should be standardization of services across the board.
Sitharaman said that the reforms would also lead to timely payments to power generational companies, which have been reeling under massive balance of payment crisis over the last month or so due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
