Power Minister R K Singh has said that the government is in the process of implementing a new tariff policy and the second version of UDAY scheme (UDAY 2.0) to resolve the issue of losses of discoms, which is the only difficulty in ensuring round the clock electricity supply for all. He said ‘there is a capacity to transfer (supply) any quantum (of power). There is no reason why 24X7 power cannot be given. The only difficulty in this (24X7 power for All) is losses to some distribution utilities. They don't have money to pay for power.’
Talking about the steps being taken by the government, the minister said that the central government has already made it mandatory for discoms to open and maintain an adequate letter of credit (LC) as payment security mechanism under power purchase agreements (PPAs) for buying electricity from generating firms from August 1, 2019. He was of the view that the mandatory opening of LC, would take some time to reduce stress on power generation companies. He noted that new tariff policy has already gone to the Cabinet for vetting and approval while the power ministry is working on the UDAY 2.0 scheme which would be launched this fiscal only. He added that under the new tariff policy, the discoms would have to pay a surcharge for delayed payment, which would be equal to the commercial rate of interest.
Explaining further, Singh said after the rollout of tariff policy and UDAY 2.0 scheme, if a discom would not take steps to reduce losses, then government would not give any grant or loan. About empowering the consumer in the new tariff policy he said, 'We have recognised consumer rights in the policy. Earlier those were not recognized. We are saying that it is a service. One thing we are saying that discoms would be penalised if they do load shedding.'
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