POWER sector needs a big boost in the budget to strengthen the transmission system particularly in rural areas, cent per cent metering to bring down transmission losses, reduction in clean energy cess and bringing electricity under GST, said VK Gupta, Spokesperson of the All India Power Engineers' Federation (AIPEF). The biggest launch in Power Sector is Saubhagya scheme, which really seeks to push the last mile to every household in this country. The maximum number (90 per cent) of un-electrified houses are in UP and Bihar only. Under the scheme, however, as per the data available all the households of country could not be electrified up to December 31 last. Now it has been claimed that all willing households have been given electricity in the country. Looking into weak power system network in far off rural areas which may require more finances to get strengthened to meet the requirements of new added connections in one year, this problem needs to be addressed in Budget. Another area is to bring down line losses below 15 per cent level. In many States the unmetered power supply is being given on fixed charges basis. The installation of meters in every house is required to bring down line losses and curb power theft. Sufficient budget grants for States to complete cent per cent metering is required. With the large capacity addition in solar and wind, clean energy cess which is around Rs 400/Ton charged on coal, can be brought down to Rs100/Ton as the cost of coal has gone exorbitantly high. This relaxation would benefit consumers.