Losses and Politics

In a power scarce country like ours, power producers have a vast opportunity in front of them. But power is a sensitive sector. Not many state governments like to raise tariffs in the fear of a political backlash. Agricultural consumers for example are touch-me-nots for the ruling class. Years of subsidized tariffs for this group has meant the other user of power - industry has had to shell out more while state electricity boards continue to bear most of the burden. This imbalance however may not sustain forever. The nation's power sector faces connectivity issues. The government wants such a situation to end with the ₹40,000 crore Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana for the electricity needs of rural India. Another ₹30,000 crore is envisaged to be spent on transmission and distribution improvement. The 19 listed power generation companies saw an average revenue growth of 13 per cent in the last four quarters. Much of the increase can be attributed to better realisations and higher generation. EBI