Rise in power tariffs a 'bitter pill': Power Minister

Terming rise in tariffs as 'bitter pill', Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said Indian power distribution companies need to reduce technical and commercial losses as well to improve financial health.

Amid rising concerns about the precarious financial position of discoms, Scindia said that there were two ways to make their health better.

"One is to take the bitter pill of raising the power tariffs, which is not in the hands of central government alone
as it is a state government initiative and responsibility in our federal setup.

"The other way is to reduce the AT&C (Aggregate Technical & Commercial) losses and to make those discoms much more financially healthy and if you are able to do that then it does not necessarily result in raising power tariffs," Scindia told PTI in an interview at the World Economic Forum.

"I think a balance of both needs to be done and my impetus is not only on the issue of tariffs. Rather my impetus is more on the issue of reducing the AT&C losses and making the discoms much more viable," he said. 

T&C is a true indicator of total losses in the system. 

High technical losses in the system are primarily due to inadequate investments over the years for system improvement works while commercial losses are mainly on account of low metering efficiency, theft and pilferages.

Besides high AT&C losses, lower tariffs are among the other factors blamed for the poor financial health of discoms.

The Ministry is already working on a Rs 1,90,000 crore Financial Restructuring Package (FRP) for state-owned discoms. 

Scindia said the Power Ministry is expected to proceed further with the plan in a month's time.

On demands for hike in power tariffs, the Minister said that nearly all states have been revised them already.

"All these states have done that and there are three or four states left that are still working on it. I think that is now going to be a process, which is an ongoing process," he noted.

"Having said that, I firmly believe that the key issue is not the rise in power tariffs. The key issue is financial
health of discoms, because if you want the power sector to grow, it can not grow in isolation. It has to grow across the value chain, so it has to grow in transmission and in distribution and key to this lies in the financial health of the discoms," the Minister emphasised.