The Modi government has announced that by 2025, prepaid power meters will be installed in the entire country. After the prepaid power meter is installed, it will have to be recharged first, then you will be able to use electricity.
Prepaid smart meters: The power ministry has fixed the timeline for installing smart meters across the country. This smart meter will have the facility of pre-payment which will be used for government departments, commercial purposes and industrial units. According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Power, smart meters will work in pre-payment mode everywhere except agriculture.Also Read: Lifelong Rs 61250 pension, premium only! LIC Super Policy!
It has been said in this notification that by December 2023, smart meters will be installed in all block level government offices. It will work like a prepaid meter. This will reduce the loss of discoms. It has also been said in this notification that the State Electricity Commission can extend this deadline twice, for a maximum period of six months. However, they will also have to give proper reasons for this. Prepaid smart meters will be installed across the country by March 2025.
Urban consumer will get smart meter from 50%
According to this notification, smart meters will be installed by 2023 in any unit where the urban consumer is more than 50 percent and the AT&C loss is more than 15 percent. In other places it will be imposed by 2025.Also Read: LIC: Invest Rs 75 daily, you will get huge amount on maturity, know full details
Proposal to sell electricity to third parties
Here, the Ministry of Power has also proposed to amend the rules for power generating companies to sell electricity to third parties. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Power, this step will reduce costs and may also cut retail charges for consumers. The Ministry of Power on Thursday released the draft Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge) Amendment Rules, 2021. The amendment rules of this draft can be seen on the website of the Ministry of Power.
Retail rate will come down
The Ministry of Power proposes to take one more step towards reducing the burden of the distribution licensee to reduce the retail charges for the consumers, the statement said. The ministry said that power generation companies are being given the option to sell power to third parties and recover their cost. To this extent the fixed cost burden of the Distribution Licensed Company will be reduced.Also Read: LIC: By investing 6 thousand rupees a month, got 28 lakhs, pension of Rs 15000 on maturity also
90 thousand crore outstanding claim on discoms
Apart from this, the Union Power Ministry has said that in the last financial year 2020-21, the speculation that is being made about a loss of Rs 90,000 crore to the power distribution companies (discoms) is not correct. The ministry said the damage estimates were being “exaggeratedly exaggerated”. Recently there were some such reports in which it was said that in the financial year 2020-21, the loss of power distribution companies has reached the level of Rs 90,000 crore. The ministry said that the speculation started after the report published in March, 2021 on the power sector by rating agency ICRA.
50 thousand crore loss in financial year 2019
The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that this report shows a loss of Rs 50,000 crore in 2018-19. At the same time, the report has mentioned that the loss has increased to Rs 60,000 crore in 2019-20. In the report, on this basis, the total loss of discoms in 2020-21 has been described as Rs 90,000 crore. The ministry said that one of the reasons behind the speculation that the losses have risen to a high level has been attributed to the fall in the sale of electricity in 2020-21 due to the lockdown imposed due to Kovid-19.Also Read: Link gas connection with Aadhaar in these ways, LPG subsidy will never stop
30 thousand crore dues of lenders
The report also mentions an increase of Rs 30,000 crore in dues of lenders to discoms from March 2020 to December 2020. The ministry said that this increase of Rs 30,000 crore is a cash flow problem. This was directly added to the amount to be paid to the discoms and reflected in the additional loss of direct distribution companies in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.Also Read: If you are traveling by IndiGo flight then avail these services for just Rs.600
The loss of discoms in the financial year 2020 is 56 thousand crores
The ministry said that due to similar erroneous estimates of ICRA, the loss figure has been pushed to Rs 90,000 crore, which appears to be overstated. ICRA has said in a detailed statement that as per its March 2021 report, the net loss of discoms in 2019-20 is estimated to be Rs 56,000 crore. “We will be able to reconcile the loss estimates for the financial year 2019-20 with the loss estimates for the financial year of the Ministry of Power only when the detailed accounts prepared by PFC are available.”Also Read: Indane LPG Connection: Get this service at your doorstep with just a missed call, WhatsApp message, SMS on these numbers
Suggestion for compensation to discoms
Apart from this, ICRA said that in the report for 2020-21, it has been estimated that the revenue gap for discoms will increase to Rs 30,000 crore. This is because of the lack of demand from high paying commercial and industrial customers due to Kovid-19. ICRA has said that companies can be compensated by the state governments in the form of additional revenue support so that their book losses are reduced and there are other ways in which this loss estimate can be reduced. The agency has said, “It should be noted that nowhere in the report it has been said that the book loss in the financial year 2020-21 is estimated to be Rs 90,000 crore.”
