Mumbai, July 26: The Maharashtra government, in a major policy initiative, has decided to compensate power subsidies given by the loss-making state electricity board through budgetary allocation. Chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh said the budgetary allocation to make up for subsidies cannot be avoided especially since the government has already set up the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.Deshmukh said that the government would have to take a decision on providing budgetary support following the recent stay given by the state energy minister on the power tariff hike for agricultural consumers and powerooms. As per the prevailing central act, State Electricity Regulatory Commission's order on tariff hike can be challenged only in the high court or else the government would have to compensate the revision.
Deshmukh made it amply clear that unbundling of cash-strapped Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) is a must in a bid to reduce transmission and distribution losses and improve efficiency. He also said that the state will explore possibility of the privatisation of power distribution in the powerloom town Bhiwandi after taking MSEB employees into confidence.
Deshmukh made a renewed appeal to the striking MSEB unions to withdraw their strike and hold negotiations. He assured that jobs of 1,20,000 employees of MSEB would be protected during the proposed unbundling wherein three separate government companies for generation, transmission and distribution would be set up.
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