Penalty on discoms for load shedding from financial year 2019

PATNA: Union minister of state for power and renewable energy (independent charge) R K Singh said on Tuesday power distribution companies (discoms) would have to pay penalty for load shedding in any area from the next financial year.


Singh said the discoms would also have to bear the financial burden arising from the aggregate transmission and commercial (AT & C) losses beyond the base mark of 15%.

“The twin proposals have been included in the Centre’s draft power policy that would be put in public domain for inviting suggestions from the public. The final policy will be effective from the next financial year,” Singh said.

Elaborating on the proposals, Singh said the quantum of penalty to be levied on account of load shedding would be decided by the power regulatory authority of the state concerned.

Similarly, it has been a practice that discoms account for the AT & C losses in claiming reimbursements from the government for the services they render while transmitting power. Once the new power policy becomes effective, however, the discoms would not be reimbursed for the AT & C losses beyond the base mark of 15%.

Singh was talking about the achievements made by his ministry in the last 48 months while talking to media persons from seven state capitals — Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Guwahati, Jaipur and Bhopal — through videoconferencing.

The four years of Narendra Modi government are being celebrated under the peg ‘48 years of the past Congress rule versus 48 months of the rule of PM Modi’. “The hallmark of the Modi dispensation is that the ministries set target to be achieved within a time frame, which was not the case in the past,” Singh said.

In the backdrop of rising prices of petrol and diesel, he said relieving the burden of farmers in the country, including Bihar, who use diesel for running pumping sets for irrigation purposes, was on the high-priority list of PM Modi. Accordingly, his ministry has introduced the Kusum scheme under which farmers will have the option to install solar pump sets.