| The National Federations of Power Employees and Engineers has called for a two-day nationwide strike on January 8 and 9 against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018 and privatization policies of Union and state governments. The national coordination committee of electricity employees and engineers (NCCOEEE), a broad-based umbrella organisation of 1.5 million power workers and engineers working in power sector of India, has already served strike notice to Union and all state governments. NCCOEEE has warned to go on flash strike in case government proposes to pass the bill in the Parliament. Besides opposing Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018, the committee insisted on implementing old pension scheme for all power employees. The committee termed the draft amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003 ‘very dangerous’ declaring that the proposed changes were aimed at benefitting ‘the big power companies’. It alleged that the draft amendment would result in a steep hike in power tariff, thereby making it unaffordable even for the middle class, let alone farmers and the poor. The committee pointed out that states across the country give subsidised electricity to various categories of consumers — including farmers — and this is one of the primary reasons why many distribution companies across the country are in huge debt currently. If a consumer gets the subsidy directly in bank accounts under DBT, the Centre expects that the DISCOMS would not accumulate more debt. The enactment of this Bill will boost the cost of supply to sky level. All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) declared that the motive of the bill is to create scope of business for private enterprises in power distribution without any investment. They will be given separate profitable segments like sale of electricity to major industry, commercial establishments, railways splitting from un-remunerative loss-making segments like rural households and agricultural consumers. The bill wants to segregate the distribution of power into carriage (the distribution network carrying the electricity to consumers) and supply (or the sale of electricity to consumers). Basically, the government will lay down the wires that carry the electricity up to the consumer, while private companies will sell electricity. This move is intended to separate out the more profitable aspects of distribution that can then easily be taken over by the private players, the federation argued. AIPEF chairman Shailendra Dubey said the government is pushing the bill on the false premise that competition will lead to better services for consumers. “But the fact is that it is bound to lead to the supply of electricity becoming more expensive — in a country where nearly 30 crore people are still without electricity. That is because private companies would only be interested in the large, high-paying consumers, such as industrial units and large-scale commercial establishments. These are the highly profitable consumers over whom the private companies would be interested in competing. But the small-time consumers that are not profitable, such as rural households and small shops — which will count as the loss-making segments of consumers — would be left for the government to take care of. This is also likely to lead to a situation where the consumers will either have to pay much higher for the electricity supply or suffer from erratic supply. In effect, if passed, the legislation would lead to the nationalisation of losses and privatisation of profits,” said Dubey. |