Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission (JSERC) held a meeting on Wednesday with all its stakeholders to discuss a number of issues related to electricity production to distribution. Though there were anticipations about a tariff hike in electricity, it was ruled out in the meeting for anytime soon.
The meeting was primarily called to discuss Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). This is a financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India (DISCOMs).
The plan has been initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power distribution companies have been since some years. It allows State Governments, which own the discoms, to take over 75 per cent of their debt as of September 30, 2015, and pay back lenders by selling bonds. Discoms are expected to issue bonds for the remaining 25 percent of their debt.
“Electricity tariff hike is a serious issue, as it affects end consumer instantly. Then, electricity producers and distributors will have to come up with exact numbers to get the tariff hiked. Even after that, the amount of hike which distribution and production companies would seek might be curbed. This all is a lengthy process and I am in a position to say that there is no tariff in a month or two,” said Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission (JSERC) Chairman Justice (Retd) NN Tiwari after the meeting.
According to sources present in the meeting, problems related to electricity production and distribution, were also discussed at length. The Commission also gave clean chit to Jharkhand State Electricity Distribution Corporation (JSEDC) limited in the case of Deoghar mishap last year. JSEDC was accused of poor maintenance of street lights around accident premise in the case, which intensified the accident in terms of casualty. “JHEDC was found not responsible of maintenance works around accident premise,” said Tiwari.