In this episode of the Perspective Prog. based on ‘Cost of Free Power’. Ongoing assembly elections in five states have seen a flurry of promises from political parties and the prominent one amongst these is the promise of free or subsidised power for farmers and domestic consumers. Uttar Pradesh has 5 state discoms and amongst them Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam and Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam have the highest share of agri consumers at close to 20%. In Punjab, agri-linked consumers account for 24% of total consumers. According to a analysis free power to farmers account for 70% of total subsidies, free power to Scheduled Caste, backward caste and BPL families contribute 14 per cent while subsidised power to industrial consumers constitutes 16% of total subsidies. Experts points out that free power not only erodes the financial viability of the electricity distribution sector but also leads to industrial and commercial consumers paying cross subsidy in terms of higher power tariffs to partly compensate the under-recoveries discoms suffer on account of providing power at cheaper rates to domestic and agricultural consumers.
Guests:
1. Vipul Tuli, Chair, Power Committee, FICCI
2. Sanjiv N. Sahai, Former Secretary, Ministry of Power, GoI
3. Dr. Pramod Deo, Former Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
Anchor: Vishal Dahiya
Producer: Amit Srivastava, Sagheer Ahmad
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