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| Edited By: Swati Khandelwal |Source: Zee Business |Updated: Jul 17, 2019, 06:30 AM IST
Various reasons like availability of fuel for plants and absence of power purchasing agreement have created stress in the power sector, says A K Bhalla, power secretary. In an interview with Swati Khandelwal, Bhalla said a high-level committee was formed to look into the problems of the power sector, mainly related to coal supply.
We were developing infrastructure in rural areas as we intend to provide electricity to every village and every home. The most important thing that we are supposed to do now is 24X7 power supply in a very stable manner and in a way that people can afford it. So, we are working on it, intending to further strengthen it. The process will be completed in association with state governments because every state has different demand. A lot of capital investment has been made on it and schemes have also been launched like ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana’ (DDUGJY), ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ ‘Saubhagya’ and in urban areas under ‘Integrated ‘Power Development Scheme’. Interestingly, the money allocated for Saubhagya scheme has been spent and infrastructure is being developed by using the allocations of other two schemes. I think in the next 2-3 years, we will be able to ensure 24X7 power supply across the country.
Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday) was introduced for the purpose, and under the scheme, their debt was taken over by the state governments and the process helped in improving their balance-sheets. Usually, it is said that this is a one-time measure and it will be needed once again after 5-10 years. But Uday scheme was slightly different from such schemes, and as I said that we have invested in infrastructure and its improvement across the country. The Uday scheme isn’t unsuccessful as the debt was taken over but the adjustments in books of some states are unfinished, which makes one feel that there is huge debt on balance- sheets.
There were various reasons for stress in the power sector like the issues of fuel availability for some plants, some plants were created without having a power purchasing agreement, some had the capacity but lacked coal-linkage and power purchasing agreement. The stress from these problems resulted in sectoral issues for the government. The banks had already granted loans so couldn’t grant further. As a result, a high-level committee was formed where the sectoral problems mainly related to coal supply were addressed. New instructions have been approved by the Cabinet and there is an improvement in the coal availability from Coal India.
The new circular has put a fair responsibility on lenders. Earlier, there was an issue of 100% lenders’ nod, which has been relaxed. So now, if they think, what they have is resolvable, they should agree and do it. If they delay it, then they’ll have to make provisions in the balance sheet. Doing so might also cause losses to some banks. I hope lenders will not delay resolvable projects and many discussions have going on and inter-creditor agreements have been signed in some places.
We are planning to introduce reforms in our tariff policy and the minister has said that a new tariff policy will be brought soon. The experience of the Discoms, issues on functioning, regulators and policy gaps will be considered while bringing in new tariff policy and they’ll get implemented as soon as they are approved. The charges on open access permissions were high enough, which made it unworkable many times. If the tariff is rationalised, then those people will not find the need to go outside and will obtain electricity here itself. While the policy gets implemented soon, we expect easier open access as well as its minimum requirement.
More than 50% of the problem will be resolved. We had around 40,000 mw, out of which 10,000 mw has already been solved and we’ll try to resolve another 15,000 mw. As a result, the issue of 25,000 mw can be solved. In terms of value, it is difficult for me to state the numbers because I don’t have the figures readily. It was considered the sector had a debt of around Rs 1.70 lakh crore but many accounts of those have been standardised and more than 50% of the amount will be recovered.
Several policies have been framed by different ministries and Niti Aayog was coordinating it. We have introduced charging infrastructure policy and issued guidelines on what will be considered as the public charging infrastructure. The Union heavy industry ministry has released FAME-II scheme, which will provide vehicle buying support and some funds will be released in the form of subsidy to support the infrastructure. Similarly, several things were announced in the 2019 Budget. So, this is the beginning. Earlier, we were thinking of installing the charging infrastructure and that’s why subsidy provisions have been kept to ensure that the user doesn’t feel that sufficient charging infrastructure is not available. One company has launched a vehicle in the recent past. We expect that other automobile manufacturers would come out and announce their plans for it. Rest will follow the announcement because it will take some time for transition.
― Zee Media Newsroom
