Farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who are braving the biting winter chill camping at Delhi borders, have been agitating for the last 25 days against the three contentious farm laws passed by the central government and against the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020.
Farmers’ main fear is that the state governments will not pay their subsidies on time and private distribution companies will not listen to them. Given the sorry state of Punjab’s finances, the state has been defaulting full payment in a financial year to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) for the last so many years. The subsidy amount is also increasing with the addition of industrial consumers who are getting electricity on reduced rates.
The central government claimed that farmers will not be affected by the direct subsidy payment mechanism in the proposed Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 and will continue to get power as they do now if the state government desires.
Farmers protesting against the farm bills are also seeking scrapping of the subsidy payment mechanism and privatization of discoms proposed in the bill.
Punjab chief minister has already said that three farm legislations along with the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 are clearly against the interests of farmers and landless workers and time-tested agricultural marketing system not only in Punjab but also in Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh.
VK Gupta, spokesperson of the All-India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF), said that some of the provisions of the Bill are the removal of cross-subsidies and subsidies. If a state government wishes to subsidize any category of consumers, they may do so by transferring the subsidy benefits directly to the consumers by using the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism. The Bill requires farmers to pay the cost to serve and the subsidy will be sent to them at a later date. The first UPA government amended this provision in the Electricity Act 2003 to a “progressive reduction” of cross-subsidies instead of their “elimination”. Reversing that amendment with another one, the New Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, proposes to eliminate cross-subsidies as they stand, in one go.
In the agriculture sector, the subsidy transfers will be to those who own land. Those cultivating leased land and sharecroppers are unlikely to be able to avail the benefits at all.
In Punjab and Haryana, surface water tariffs are highly subsidized and there is no discussion about revising these. But electric pump-set based groundwater irrigation is sought to constantly be made more expensive. |
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