Tag: Discoms financial crisis

As India’s economy expands, providing uninterrupted power is paramount. Besides enhancing capacity and augmenting infrastructure, it’s essential to minimise losses and make discoms fiscally responsible. Union minister of power and new & renewable energy R.K. Singh discusses the government’s roadmap for a robust power sector with Deputy Editor Anilesh S. Mahajan. Excerpts:Source link

Sometime in the middle of January, Hiralal Nagar, the energy minister in the newly sworn-in BJP government in Rajasthan, visited Union power minister R.K. Singh’s office in New Delhi with a request. He wondered if his state could get additional electricity along with some relaxations in lending norms. Distribution companies, or discoms, in Rajasthan have a cumulative debt of Rs 79,370 crore, according to the latest filings with the state’s regulator. It’s a nightmare for the new government, which has to honour electricity subsidies committed by its predecessors. Singh’s response to Nagar was a polite “sorry”. Nagar is not the only one; many of his counterparts and chief ministers from other states have been approaching the Union minister with similar requests for either more electricity or...