Distribution in Gurgaon, Panipat being privatised to bail power corps out
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government seems to have found an antidote to battle the bankruptcy of its two power utilities - the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).

Faced with massive accumulated losses, amounting to about Rs 16,000 crore, of its two power utilities, the state government is set to privatise power distribution in Gurgaon and Panipat.

“The privatisation of power supply in the two high revenue-generating areas will go a long way in gathering additional resources for the fund-starved distribution companies (discoms) which have recently sent an SOS to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) to hike power tariff to bring them out of the red,” sources told The Tribune here today.

Gurgaon, which comes under the jurisdiction of DHBVN, contributed a monthly revenue of Rs 214 crore against a total revenue of Rs 450 crore of the company. On the other hand, Panipat generates a monthly revenue of Rs 35 crore out of the total Rs 315 crore revenue generated by the UHBVN.

Sources said the privatisation would help the state government in three ways. First, by bringing in more revenue for the state government, it would delay the unpopular decision of hiking the power tariff.

Secondly, the transmission and distribution losses, which are quite high in certain districts of the state, could be brought down through privatisation.

Thirdly, privatisation would help the state government recover revenue from consumers at a much faster rate. Currently, the arrears in a majority of areas are mounting and the state-controlled discoms have failed to realise them for years altogether on account of alleged patronage of the defaulters by vested interests, including elected representatives.

The sources said out of the total projected revenue gap of a massive Rs 7,755 crore for the two discoms for 2012-13, the approximate rural electrification component was pegged at Rs 3,421 crore for subsided power supply to the farm sector. Once the power supply gets outsourced, this figure would come down by a large extent.

Besides, privatisation will provide healthy competition to the state-controlled discoms, whose functioning has been marred by mismanagement, inefficiency and high-aggregate technical and commercial losses.

However, the decision to privatise power distribution may not go well with the powerful power unions in the state which have already opposed the move terming it as “anti-people and anti-consumer”.

How will privatisation help
n It will bring in more revenue for the state government and thereby delay the unpopular decision of hiking the power tariff.
n Transmission and distribution losses, which are quite high in certain districts, can be brought down through privatisation.
n This move will help the state government recover dues from consumers at a much faster rate.