Power Engineers Oppose Proposed Amendment in Electricity Act, nationwide strike January 8 & 9

Pune – All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) Federal Executive Meeting held at Pune has termed the changes proposed in the Electricity Act, 2003 as a matter of serious concern as this will concentrate all powers in the electricity sector in the hands of central government and will eventually lead to complete privatization of power distribution in India.

AIPEF Federal Executive through a resolution has warned against any unilateral ‘rush through of proposed amendment Bill in parliament which will force 1.5 million power employees & engineers to go on lightning strike on the day Bill is placed in parliament. AIPEF has appealed to Maharashtra CM & all other Chief Ministers to oppose the proposed Bill as it is not only anti people but it is also against the Constitutional provision of Electricity as a concurrent subject wherein States have equal powers and if enacted Bill will encroach the sovereignty of state. AIPEF Office Bearers told that about 1.5 million power employees & engineers of country shall resort to two day strike on 08 & 09 January 2019 against the proposed Bill.

Other main demands of power engineers are integration of all power utilities to form SEB Ltd like KSEB Ltd and HPSEB Ltd and implementation of old pension scheme for all power engineers. AIPEF has already submitted its comments on the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018 to Sri R K Singh Power Minister and has demanded that the revised draft be again sent to Standing Committee of Parliament and the Federation be given a hearing to present its view point. AIPEF has urged that the States should also be allowed to give their views before the Committee as Electricity is a concurrent subject. Shailendra Dubey Chairman & P Rathnakar Rao Secretary General AIPEF AIPEF told here that in the proposed Amendment there will be separate supply licensees, Incumbent supply licensee and Intermediate Company to handle all power purchase agreements (PPAs).

In present scenario every state pools the availability of power and implements merit order dispatch at state level to that energy requirement is met at least cost. With proposed setup how the Intermediary Company will implement merit order with multiple supply licensees is not known and it will be impossible task. It will lead to endless disputes as each licensee will claim power from least cost PPAs and it will result in problem of stranded PPAs becoming unmanageable. They told that presently Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) are guided by tariff policy whereas in the draft amendment tariff policy will become mandatory. This will make CERC as well as all SERCs subservient to policy dictates of central government issued through Section 3 of Act. The Regulators will no longer be Independent and distanced from government.

AIPEF said that the changes in the draft bill have been proposed to pave the may for privatization of power sector wherein supply licensees will be mostly from private sector and the licensees will get assured profit by way of guaranteed return on capital employed and by stipulating that licensees will get their expenses covered without revenue gap. It can be said that the changes in tariff have been proposed to encourage privatization and ensure guaranteed profits to private parties. The draft amendment proposes that the cross subsidy payable to different set of consumers within the distribution area will be reduced progressively and eliminated in a period of three years. This is a policy matter for each State to decide. Further any subsidy payable to a consumer will be through the provision of direct benefit transfer and this proposal is practically unworkable and sure to fail.

AIPEF said that when most of State DISCOMS of country arc in financial distress, this is not the time or occasion to introduce changes by way of separating supply and distribution functions. It will make financial crisis even worse.

The present chaos of surplus capacity and stranded thermal projects is due to non-appraisal and non-clearance by Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Power of CEA to give Techno Economic Clearance for thermal projects should be restored. CEA should have the required strength of 8 full time members and 6 part time members as per existing Act 2003. Presently CEA has 6 full time members and post of Chairman is lying vacant.

When most of state DISCOMS of country are in financial distress privatization of power distribution will make financial crisis even worse.

The Govt has not issued the statement of Objects and reasons to explain the basis on which the amendments are proposed and how these will be achieved through the amendments. AIPEF Federal Executive Meeting was attended by delegates of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Tarnilnadu,Karnataka, Telangana, UP,Punjab. Delhi and several other States. AIPEF Office Bearers Shailendra Dubey, P Rathnakar Rao. Padamjit Singh, K Ashok Rao, Sunil Jagtap, Sanjay Thakur.K Appraswamy, L Ravi, Bralunprakash ,N R Ray.B L Yadav,P N Singh) R Shah,G K Mishra, Rajiv Singh, A K Jain, Suryakant Pawar mainly addressed the federal executive meeting.