Proposed Electricity Bill is against federal spirit, KCR tells PM Modi
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao stressed that states should have the flexibility to determine their own policy on renewable energy,
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday strongly opposed the Centre’s proposed bill to amend the Electricity Act which he said would have an adverse impact directly on the management of the state electricity utilities.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the backdrop of the Centre asking the states to express their opinion on the draft Electricity Amendment Bill, 2020, KCR demanded that the Centre should withdraw the proposed Bill.
He said the proposed bill would take away certain functions and powers of the State government. Proposals like appointment of State Electricity Regulatory Commission by a selection committee constituted by the Centre and entrusting the responsibilities to a neighbouring State Electricity Regulatory Commissions under certain circumstances were against the federal spirit.
“Just because power is a concurrent subject, it does not mean that the Centre or Parliament can enact laws which have direct and major influence on the functioning of the state government,” he said.
The chief minister also said any national renewable energy policy should be formulated with the consent of the states, not just consultation. Each state has its own unique situations like potential for hydro power, wind power, solar power, land availability etc. As such, states should have the flexibility to determine their own policy on renewable energy, he said.
He also opposed making the national load despatch centre (NLDC) all powerful with regard to scheduling of power throughout the country. It will result in backing down of state thermal units, which cannot compete with central stations whose generation cost is less. “Therefore, intra-state transmission decisions should be left to the SLDCs only,” he said.
The draft bill also has a provision for the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of subsidy provided to consumers, particularly to the agriculture and domestic sectors. This would work against the interest of farmers and very poor domestic consumers. Mode of payment of the subsidy should be left to the state government, KCR argued.
The Telangana chief minister resisted the proposal that the Commission will fix the tariff for all the consumers without any subsidy. Presently tariff fixation by the Commission includes some cross subsidy to be borne by certain categories of consumers.
“With the proposed amendment, bills are to be issued for actual cost to all the categories of consumers including agriculture. Discretion to levy cross subsidy on certain sections of consumers shall be better left to the states,” he said.
