"We are not a political agency. We are an independent authority and power tariff will be determined by commercial and technical factors while keeping the consumers' interests in mind," Rao, who took the oath of chairman on Monday, told PTI in an interview.

He, however, termed state power utilities, particularly the state electricity boards (SEBs) as the biggest malady afflicting the power sector and said "public sector, which has been a dominant element in the power sector is on a negative cash flow, thus making fresh investments difficult".

Asked about the competitive populism of states in giving free or subsidised powers, which is believed to be main cause for dismal financial health of SEBs, Rao said, "this is a state subject and state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) would have to look intoit".

"CERC's main job is to look into tariff structure of central PSUs and inter-state power utilities and it will be handled in the most transparent manner," he said.

Other members of the commission, which is now on the look out for an office, are expected to take oath on Friday, he said.

Rao declined to get into specific issues on the power sector saying that the commission was yet to meet and it would be atleast a few weeks before this independent power regulator was in a position to firm up its opinions. However, he said the CERC Act passed by Parliament, had given it the specific tasks of setting the power tariff and licensing of transmission projects in the private sector in the wake of passage of a Bill to enable private participation in this area. Rao ruled out the possibility of any conflict with either the government or the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) while exercising CERC's statutory powers. The power ministry had handed over its responsibility to an independent authority and "I seeno conflict between the CERC and the government", he said.