Tariff to be major issue: Engineers
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 31
Experts in the power sector have blamed the successive state governments in Punjab for ignoring power capacity addition which has resulted in a wide gap between the demand and supply of power for various categories of consumers.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the PSEB Engineers' Association, association president HS Bedi expressed reservations over government's policy of depending entirely on the private sector for power capacity addition.

"With the commissioning of the proposed capacity in the private sector, the share of Punjab's own generation will come down from 52 per cent to less than 20 per cent, which will be inadequate for managing the power system in an economical and efficient manner. If power shortage was an issue in the past, power tariff will be a major issue in the coming years," Bedi said.

The engineers informed the Chief Minister about PSPCL's cumulative commercial losses of more than Rs 11,000 crore. Now, the banks had refused to give loans which had resulted in a serious cash crunch, they said. "For the first time, the PSPCL defaulted on repayment to banks. The non-payment of subsidy in advance and in the form of cash by the government is one of the crucial issue that needs immediate attention", said various speakers.