NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JULY 8
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has told the union government that allowing private franchisees in power sector will lead to cherry-picking and affecting DISCOMs directly here on Wednesday.
"மத்திய அரசின் மின்சார சட்ட திருத்த மசோதா – 2020 தொடர்பாக தமிழ்நாட்டின் நிலை குறித்தும், மின்சாரத்துறை கோரிக்கைகள் தொடர்பாகவும்" இன்று மாண்புமிகு மத்திய எரிசக்தி, புதிய மற்றும் புதுப்பிக்கத்தக்க எரிசக்தித் துறை இணை அமைச்சர் @RajKSinghIndia அவர்களிடம் விளக்கி எடுத்துரைத்தேன். pic.twitter.com/sgc48cISvJ
— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) July 8, 2020
Palaniswami said “the free power supplied to agriculture sector and households should not be brought under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme”.
In a letter to R.K. Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Reweable Energy, Palaniswami said some of the provisions mentioned in the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 are detrimental to the state government/state utilities. “Provisions in the draft Amendment Bill to allow private franchisee/sub-licencee will only lead to cherry-picking of remunerative areas by the franchisee/sub-distribution licencee, affecting the DISCOMs directly and thereby the public interest. The state discoms will be left with serving social sector obligations and rural areas which will result in massive losses to the discoms,” Palaniswami said.
Palaniswami also said it is unacceptable to fix hydroelectricity purchase obligations separately to a state like Tamil Nadu as it is seasonal and monsoon-dependent, which is not in the control of power distribution companies.
“To avoid disparity among the States with different sources of renewable energy available, it is suggested that Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) can be fixed for total renewable energy rather than independently fixing for solar, non-solar, hydro etc,” the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wrote to Singh.
Welcoming the central government’s liquidity infusion package of Rs 90,000 crore to power distribution companies for clearing their dues, Palaniswami said the central government should relax the norms for working capital under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
He also said the state’s power utility Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd has already applied for the financial assistance of Rs 20,622 crore to Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).
