The Central government on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of retrenchment of employees as it works with the States to revive the beleaguered power discoms.
“In all our efforts, while we are reviving these discoms and turning them around with resolution on permanent basis, we will ensure that not a single employee of the power sector is displaced. Everybody will be taken care of, there skills will be developed. They will be empowered to work better. They will be trained to perform their duties better,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters.
Mr. Goyal, who is also the Minister for Coal and New & Renewable energy, added that effort are on to introduce a regulatory framework that would facilitate gradual increase in tariffs, which is likely to help the loss-making discoms.
Regulator’s prerogative “I have never suggested even once that there should not be a tariff increase. Tariff setting is the prerogative of the regulator...there are States where it (increase) has not been done…sometimes because of political interference. That will have to be corrected going forward. We are trying to introduce an innovative way on how these tariffs can be increased more gradually, over a longer period of times, rather than burdening the people,” he said.
The Minister, however, added that increase in tariffs will not solve all the problems of the debt-ridden discoms.
“My own personal view is that this is a completely flawed logic, increasing tariffs will never set your discoms right. There may be a few cases where tariffs have been unjustly kept low or they have not been allowed to remain in line with the expected tariff regulation…the story has to be one of efficiency…energies need to be focused of bringing down technical losses, power thefts, transmission and distribution losses…”
Mr. Goyal further ruled out any bail-out package from the Central government for the discoms, “The Central government is not shirking away from any of its responsibility. We will participate step by step with them. We will guide them, nuture them, handhold them. We will support them with funds for upgradation of technology and infrastructure. But certainly not bailout them,” he said.
