Union Minister for Power Piyush Goyal recently chaired a two-day conference of State Power Ministers in New Delhi. We learn from our sources that it was revealed in the conference that in J&K State billing of electricity was just 47 per cent. And out of 47 per cent consumers billed, only 64 per cent were making payments of power consumed by them.
The Union Minister for Power called this as very grim scenario. From what trickled down from the conference we learn that the previous State Governments hadn’t taken any initiatives to bring reforms in power sector while present PDP-BJP Government has taken certain measures to bring AT&C losses under control and improve revenue generation. This notwithstanding, just 47 per cent billing in Jammu and Kashmir is the lowest among all the States. The Union Power Ministry, therefore, wants it to be improved drastically to strengthen revenue generation in power sector in the State. Surprisingly, out of 47 per cent consumers billed, only 64 per cent of them were paying revenue, which means that only 30 per cent power customers in J&K make payment for the electricity consumed by them. Consequently, the Union Minister for Power has very rightly emphasized upon the State Government to have a look at the models of Maharashtra and Bihar to improve revenue generation and contain Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses on its own. In other words, the State Government has been told that it has to bring about drastic reforms in power generation and distribution system on its own and not expect the Centre to do miracles for the State. It is regrettable that despite having the potential of water resources we are not able to generate as much electric power as is our need and moreover there is huge under utilization of this potential. The State Government should follow the advice of the Union Power Minister and depute a team of experts to Maharashtra and Bihar and conduct study how we can pursue same mechanism in the State and thus change the depressing power scenario.
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