1. Putting Draft Amendments in public domain for all stakeholders.
In case of earlier Amendment, the Draft Electricity (Amendmen) Bill -2020 it was put on the Ministry of Power website on 17/04/2020 with 3 weeks to file comment, later extended to 5th June 2020. All stakeholders were free to file comments/ objections in present case the Amendment 2021 has been circulated only to Principal Secretary States/ State Discoms and therefore lacks transparency.
2. Transparency is a requirement of Electricity Act 2003 in Section 79 (3) and Section 86 (3).
3. An exercise to Amend Act without consulting all stakeholders goes contrary to statement of Power Minister Govt. of India on 03rd July (Power Minster’s Conference) that
“The Bill will be finalized after consultation with all concerned”.
4. Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill – 2021 should be put on the website of the Ministry of Power and a 6 months period be given to all stakeholders.
5. The most important stakeholders are consumers and power employees/ workers /engineers of state discoms.
6. Other stakeholders who must not be ignored /excluded from giving comments/ suggestions are.
a) CERC
b) SERC
c) Forum of Regulators (Section 166 of Electricity Act 2003)
d) CEA
e) NITI AAYOG
f) PRAYAS
g) TERI
h) NCAER
i) IITs, IIMs
7. There is no “Statement of Reasons” for Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill -2021. When the Electricity Act 2003 has a statement of reasons, the Amendment Bill 2021 must have SOR on similar principle.
8. The earlier Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 did have SOR.
9. Non Transparency regarding Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill -2020 of 17/04/2020. Govt. of India should WITHDRAW the bill of 17/04/2020 to avoid overlapping and ambiguity.
10. Several Paras of Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill – 2021 have reference to Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 i.e. bill of 17/04/2020. Since the 2020 bill is not yet decided, these Paras of Bill 2021 containing reference to 2020 bill become anomalous and meaningless because nobody knows the outcome of the 2020 bill of 17/04/2020.
These Paras of 2021 Bill are as under (Containing reference to 2020 Bill)
Page 3, 2nd Para from Top
Page 6, Section 49 A, 2nd Para
Page 6, Para 49 A Last Para
The above stated Paras of 2021 bill on Page 3 and Page 6 are meaningless in view of non finalization of Bill 2020. Hence, it is reiterated that Bill 2020 of 17/04/2020 must be withdrawn/ scrapped and the draft bill of 2021 must be withdrawn.
11. The Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill -2021 by restricting comments to only Principal Secretaries of States / State Dicsoms thereby excluded CEA, a statutory body u/s 70, and CEA would not be able to perform statutory function under following sections.
73 a
73 h
73 m
55
12. By excluding CERC from purview of giving comments / suggestions, the CERC would not be able to perform its statutory functions w.r.t. following sections of Electricity Act 2003.
79 (2)
81
Section 60,61,62,63,64,178
13 The SERCs would be excluded from giving its statutory advice / comments sections of Electricity Act 2003
86 (2)
88 (1)
166
177
55
14. Under section 166 the comments/ advice of following statutory bodies is mandatory
Coordination Forum
Forum of Regulators
State Govt. Coordination Forum
15. The Central Advisory committee and State Advisory Committee constituted under act must not be excluded.
16. On the matter of introducing registration process vis-à-vis licensing, Section 181 gives the domain and jurisdiction of SERC, and so comments/ views of SERC are legally required whereas Govt. of India has excluded SERC from the amendment process.
17. Introducing multiple distribution companies for giving consumer choice will surely result in proliferation of disputes and opening Pandora's box of court cases going up to the Supreme Court. Vide recent article by Dr. Pramod Deo, Ex-Chairman CERC. The article shows how multiple litigations have resulted in Mumbai , extending to the Supreme Court and for several years.
An Exercise by PRAYAS on Mumbai system “many sparks but little light” gives details of huge litigation problems.
CONCLUSION:
We suggest that the earlier Bill 2020 of 17/04/2020 must be withdrawn
The present Bill 2021 also must be withdrawn as it does not have a statement of reasons and it has references to earlier bill 2020 that are meaningless and impossible to examine for comments as Bill 2020 is unknown.
We suggest that Govt. of India should adopt Principle of Transparency and allow extended time of 3 months for comments after proposals (revised) are put on public domain, Ministry of Power website. As detailed above the proposed Draft Electricity Amendment Bill – 2021 has serious legal infirmities as it conflicts with the above stated provisions of Electricity Act 2003.
With Regards.
Sincerely Yours
Shailendra Dubey
Chairman