Privatise power supply: Niti Aayog

Hyderabad: The supply of electricity could go into the hands of private parties, if a Niti Aayog proposal to the Centre is adopted. Distribution companies will own the grid under this arrangement.

If this proposal is carried through, customers will have the freedom to choose their electricity distributor, as is being done in the telecom sector. The proposal is contained in the draft National Electricity Policy and is aimed at eliminating the debt burden on discoms, and says the way to do it is to private the purchase of power. Niti Aayog said the fundamental cause of discoms going bankrupt is the absence of commercial pressure on them and political pressures to provide electricity either free or at highly subsidised prices to certain segments of society. The aggregate debt of all discoms in the country is Rs 4.3 lakh crore, and annual losses stood at Rs 60,000 crore at the end of March 2015.