Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 17: Power engineers across the country including Punjab, Haryana and J&K will protest on November 26 against the privatisation policies of the Central Government, V K Gupta spokesperson of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said today.
The AIPEF is demanding to scrap Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and standard bidding document (SBD) for the privatisation of electricity.
The SBD document proposes Electricity Distribution Company (Discoms) in all the states and union territories to undertake privatisation and to provide subsidised bulk power for the successor entity for making it an independently financially viable entity.
The assets of Discoms will be leased on a token payment. This will result in the creation of private monopolies. The Federation opposes the proposed transfer of public assets to the private sector for their profit as this will result in high tariffs for the consumers.
Federation also demanded to withdraw the process of privatisation of Electricity from the public sector to private companies in states and union territories and cancel all existing privatisation and franchises in the power sector.
The Central Government is grossly misleading the public by saying that the electricity will be cheaper after privatization. Post-privatization the private Discoms are allowed to take a minimum of 16 percent profit, which would push the power tariff to almost Rs 8 per unit for consumers.
“The Central Government was looking at abolishing the subsidy and cross-subsidy in the supply of electricity, which would make the commodity more expensive for the general consumer categories and cheaper for industrial consumers,” the Federation said.
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