Previous
Next

Request to scrap / withdraw Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021, Mar 16, 2021

Posted On : March 26, 2021

 It has been reported in some newspapers that Ministry of Power has sent the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 to the Law Ministry for vetting. It is also reported that the Ministry of Power intends to introduce and pass the Bill in the ongoing budget session of Parliament. 

2. The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) wants to draw your kind attention towards the fact that the Ministry of Power has not yet put the Bill draft on its website and the whole approach of MoP is not at all transparent in this respect. The Ministry of Power issued a letter to the Principal Secretary (Energy) of all States / UT's & CMD’s of Power Corporations of all States / UT's on 05th February 2021 circulating draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 and invited comments on draft Bill of all States /UT's within two weeks.

3. But before expiry date (ie 19 Feb 2021) to submit comments on EA Bill 2021 MoP through a letter dt 10th February 2021 issued notice for video conferencing of Principal Secretary (Energy) of all States / UT's & CMD of Power Corporations of all States / UT's which was held on 17th February 2021. As per reports representatives of many States / UT's vehemently opposed several clauses of draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 in VC held on 17th February. Again a meeting of Regulators was held on 02nd March 2021 which  was hurriedly called with 3 days notice. In this meeting also Regulators of several States opposed some clauses of EA Bill 2021. In both these meetings it was assured by the Minister of Power that objections raised by States / UT's shall be taken into account and accordingly amended draft EA Bill 2021 will be circulated. 

4. But to utter surprise news coming in the media is disturbing that MoP has circulated the EA Bill 2021 for vetting to Law & Justice Ministry and other inter related Ministries for finalisation of draft for approval of Union Cabinet.

5. Because of these non transparent developments RTI applications were sent to various States/UTs regarding the MOP OM  of 05 Feb  vide which the Bill was originally  circulated to States. Reply has been received from J&K (Letter of 09 March) that MoP OM of 05 Feb  has not been received. Thus Mop has processed the comments on Bill while J&K kas been ignored.

J&K reply is as below......

"Kindly refer to your application No ps/rti/1402b dt 14 - 02 - 2021 regarding the subject cited above, it is intimated that this office has not received OM of 05 Feb from the Ministry of Power, Government of India."

6. You would kindly agree, Sir, that by ignoring one State/UT the entire exercise of amendment of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021  becomes  invalid and this one event alone is sufficient to scrap the entire revision process. 

7. It is also noteworthy to mention that the Ministry of Power has not only excluded one State / UT but through the entire secret process it has ignored the most important consumers' view point and that of power employees & engineers whose views are must before going through any amendment in Electricity Act 2003 which will have far reaching consequences.

8. AIPEF requests you to kindly use your good offices and issue a directive to MoP to withdraw draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 sent to the Ministry of Law & Justice and other inter Ministerial offices. The procedure adopted by the Ministry of Power is totally non transparent, discriminatory, arbitrary and un decromatic. Therefore AIPEF requests you to scrap /withdraw the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021.

Thank You with regards.

Sincerely Yours

Other News

  1. AIPEF urges PM to consult all stakeholders on Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021, Mar 17, 2021
  2. CM urged to integrate power companies Jun 4, 2019
  3. PSPCL loss-to-profit firm, nets Rs 900 crore
  4. India Though a Power Surplus Nation Now, is Still Not Out of the Dark Completely
  5. All India Power Engineers Federation on Tuesday condemned the central government''s move to amend the National Electricity Policy "to facilitate privatisation". According to a statement by the AIPEF, the proposed changes require extensive discussions as such time for submission of comments should be six months. When fundamental changes are being introduced by way of privatization of the power sector, there is no basis to rush through more so under extreme distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. "All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) condemns the government of India''s move to amend the National Electricity Policy to facilitate the privatization of the power sector," the statement said. The body alleged that this is a clear attempt to introduce privatization through the backdoor and deserves to be scrapped. The purpose of the central government is not to review or revise the existing National Electricity Policy but the total replacement of existing policy with a new policy to be recommended by the expert group so as to achieve privatization, the body alleged. As per Electricity Act 2003, National Electricity Policy is to be prepared in consultation with the state governments and Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a statutory body. However, the body said that the CEA is not included in the proposed schedule of discussion. Further, only 5 states have been included in an expert group instead of all the states, it added. K Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, has stated that India is the only country that readily implemented a slew of reforms and used this crisis to herald a change in India''s economic thinking, it said. The strategy of government seems to be “never waste a crisis” and use the crisis of pandemic to streamroll so-called reforms by way of privatizing, it alleged. The draft proposal is of serious nature for which the present situation of a pandemic is a serious constraint, it stated. The Ministry of Power has once again found peak pandemic time as an opportunity in crisis to launch the draft amendments to National Electricity Policy, it lamented. Once the draft policy is finalised, the notified policy would have the status of “subordinate legislation”, and for this reason, the matters need to deliberate as in the case of the legislation itself or as in the case of amendment in the Act itself, it opined. Draft national electricity policy is pushing for more private participation in the power sector and launching sell out of public assets as at Chandigarh and Dadra Nagar Haveli, it noted. The preferred route being suggested are failed models like the franchisee system, transferring distribution responsibility to a private party, and separation of carriage (lines) and content (supply) business, it opined. Since the existing Policy is in force since February 2005 there was no emergency to totally replace it, while power engineers and workers as front line workers are already stressed in maintaining power continuity, it added All India Power Engineers Federation on Tuesday condemned the central government''s move to amend the National Electricity Policy "to facilitate privatisation". According to a statement by the AIPEF, the proposed changes require extensive discussions as such time for submission of comments should be six months. When fundamental changes are being introduced by way of privatization of the power sector, there is no basis to rush through more so under extreme distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. "All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) condemns the government of India''s move to amend the National Electricity Policy to facilitate the privatization of the power sector," the statement said. The body alleged that this is a clear attempt to introduce privatization through the backdoor and deserves to be scrapped. The purpose of the central government is not to review or revise the existing National Electricity Policy but the total replacement of existing policy with a new policy to be recommended by the expert group so as to achieve privatization, the body alleged. As per Electricity Act 2003, National Electricity Policy is to be prepared in consultation with the state governments and Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a statutory body. However, the body said that the CEA is not included in the proposed schedule of discussion. Further, only 5 states have been included in an expert group instead of all the states, it added. K Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, has stated that India is the only country that readily implemented a slew of reforms and used this crisis to herald a change in India''s economic thinking, it said. The strategy of government seems to be “never waste a crisis” and use the crisis of pandemic to streamroll so-called reforms by way of privatizing, it alleged. The draft proposal is of serious nature for which the present situation of a pandemic is a serious constraint, it stated. The Ministry of Power has once again found peak pandemic time as an opportunity in crisis to launch the draft amendments to National Electricity Policy, it lamented. Once the draft policy is finalised, the notified policy would have the status of “subordinate legislation”, and for this reason, the matters need to deliberate as in the case of the legislation itself or as in the case of amendment in the Act itself, it opined. Draft national electricity policy is pushing for more private participation in the power sector and launching sell out of public assets as at Chandigarh and Dadra Nagar Haveli, it noted. The preferred route being suggested are failed models like the franchisee system, transferring distribution responsibility to a private party, and separation of carriage (lines) and content (supply) business, it opined. Since the existing Policy is in force since February 2005 there was no emergency to totally replace it, while power engineers and workers as front line workers are already stressed in maintaining power continuity, it added