A law for private participation in 13 public service areas

The government will come up with a new law to appoint bodies to fix tariffs for services like transport, water and fuels and regulate of regulators with powers to appoint and remove members of these bodies.

Updated on: Dec 3, 2013, 20:15:42 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The government will come up with a new law to appoint bodies to fix tariffs for services like transport, water and fuels and regulate of regulators with powers to appoint and remove members of these bodies.

In a first, the draft law also provides protection to the chairpersons, members and officers of the regulatory commissions from any legal action in case of decisions taken in good faith. It says that no court will take cognizance against the officers without approval from the Central government.

A draft of the new legal framework has been prepared by the Planning Commission in a bid to push public private partnership (PPP) in service sectors and to make tariff fixation --- a bone of contention --- independent and out of the government's ambit.

Having an independent regulator for tariff fixation has been a demand for private players interested to enter the sphere of public services that effect day to day life of citizens.

The proposed law aims to address their concern by giving allowing the government to set up tariff regulatory commissions where it has powers to fix tariff and tribunal to look into complaints against the decision of these commissions.

"The government may from time to time constitute tariff regulatory commissions under this act for determination of tariffs in the provision of goods and services in public utility industries where competition is either restricted or the prices of such goods or services are determined by the government or an entity owned or controlled by the government," the draft law states

The proposed law also gives powers to the government to stipulate eligibility for appointment of chairperson and members of these commissions through a selection committee, whose members have been defined by the draft. In case of select of judicial members, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee would head the selection committee.

The final decision on the appointment would be made by a three member body headed by Prime Minister and having Leader of Opposition and finance minister as members. The law aims to define the process of selection for regulatory bodies which was not uniform till now.

The draft also provides protection to the chairpersons, members and officers of the regulatory commissions from any legal action in case of decisions taken in good faith. It says that no court will take cognizance against the officers without approval from the Central government.

The panel's draft aims to set up regulatory bodies for 13 sectors including electricity, telecom, television, posts, transport, oil and natural gas and water. It also prohibits any civil court to take coginsance of any complaint against the regulatory commissions and its functionaries.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.