GUWAHATI, April 3 — The Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 introduced in the State Assembly by the Power Minister on March 31 last, has stunned the power engineers here. The Bill seeks to restructure the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) with a view of creating independent corporate entities in the fields of generation, transmission and distribution.
The Power Minister, while introducing the Bill, said that the principal objective of the Bill was to provide universal access to electricity at competitive and affordable prices within a defined time frame. But, power engineers here maintain that the Bill has been introduced in a very hurried manner. It is going to open up an irreversible process with far-flung consequences. To reap the benefit of privatisation, an appropriate model, suitable for the State has, first of all, to be worked out. There is no exercise done on it so far, nor there is any public debate initiated on it, they observe.
Power engineer D Phukan, who is associated with the North Eastern Chambers of Commerce and Industry as a consultant, said that the Bill, so far as his knowledge goes, was not similar to the Central Electricity Bill. For finalising the draft of the Bill, the opinion of the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission (AERC) has not been obtained. The Commission has been kept quite in dark in this case, he said.
But the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) Act, 1998 in its clause 2 (b) of the section 22, says that the State ERCs are to aid and advise the State Governments in matters concerning electricity generation, transmission and supply in the respective States. Further, clause 2 (h) of Section 22 of the Act says that the State ERCs are to promote competitiveness and make avenues for participation of private sector in the electricity industry of the States and also to ensure a fair deal to the customers, Phukan said.
The applicability of the Bill should have been studied by a local committee prior to its placing in the Assembly. The best agency for the purpose would have been the AERC, he said. The Bill is so hurriedly prepared that the reasons for it are best known to the persons who have prepared and are advocating for it. But, anyway, it is not going to help the State’s cause and as a result of it the entire process of industrialisation of the State will be affected, Phukan said.
Former Member (Technical) of the ASEB Prabodh Sarma said that it was of paramount importance to make an indepth study on the issues the Bill had sought to deal with, through public debate, so that an appropriate model for the improved functioning of the State’s power sector could be worked out.
The Central Electricity Bill, 2000, now awaiting Parliamentary nod, has, among others, two salient features — one relates to re-organisation and restructuring of the SEBs in accordance with the model, phasing and sequencing to be determined by the respective State Governments, and the other relates to the extent, nature and pace of privatisation to be determined by the States.
But, no exercise was at all done to work out the model suitable for the ASEB, nor was the model consulted in wide public circle, said Sarma. Moreover, he said, the results of privatisation of the SEBs so far are not at all encouraging and experts have expressed differing views on the appropriate model of reform. The World Bank-guided model consisting of unbundling, restructuring and privatisation, which was first introduced in Orissa, is yet to prove its efficacy not only in Orissa but also in the others States, which have followed similar models, he said.
Whether it is Orissa, Karnataka, Rajashtan, Uttar Pradesh or Haryana, there is no noticeable improvement in the governance and management or in the level of service to the consumers even after years of reform. There is reportedly some improvement in Andhra Pradesh, but, it is difficult to attribute this to the reform model, as, the power sector in that State has always been better than most other States, said Sarma.
All the States taking up radical change in structure as a reform initiative, had far more conducive initial condition than the present condition of ASEB. But, despite that, they have not been able to draw noticeable benefit even after three years through the reform process. Hike in power tariff has become exorbitant in all the cases, which can depress the economy in general and the needy consumers in particular, he said. Even now, he said, it is not too late to consult at least the AERC before the Bill is passed into an Act.