After a wait of almost three years, the government is finally set to notify the Indian Boilers (Amendment) Act, 2007, which seeks to allow internationally accredited private agencies to inspect and certify the boilers for safety.
The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) pre-published the amended Act on May 21 for public discussion and now it is planning to notify it in June. The provisions of the Act apply to makers and users of boilers, including power plants, railways, paper, textiles, chemicals, etc.
Boilers Act (1923) was formulated during British rule to ensure safety of boiler users. The industry felt the Act encouraged corruption, as it gave the entire power to inspectors, starting from shutting down a unit for inspection to appointing agencies for repair and maintenance work of boilers. In fact, some industrial units, to avoid inspection, resorted to using boilers with capacities below the regulatory limit, which led to inefficiency in terms of energy consumption and safety hazards.
Considering the loopholes of the old law, the government amended it in 2007. But, it took the government long to notify it because some states, like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, were opposing it. Gujarat was the only state supporting the amendments and went on to abolish boiler inspectors’ power on the state level in February 2007. On the other hand, the power ministry, power sector companies and industry chambers had been pushing for reforms in the Act for long.
“It is a welcome step by the government in liberalisation of the industrial regulation. The third party certification and audit will bring down transaction cost of the manufacturing units and ensure safety of workers at the same time,” said Chetan Bijesure, additional director and team leader (manufacturing), Ficci.
The new law is expected to increase power plants’ generation by 3-4 per cent. According to industry estimates, it is likely to result in annual savings of about Rs 3,000 crore in the power sector alone, besides savings in other sectors. It also includes reconstitution of the Central Boiler Board (CBB), which the industry alleged was dominated by governemnt-appointed inspectors.
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“CBB has already been reconstituted in terms of strength. Earlier, we had 43 members on board, now we have 58. The number of outside members has also increased from 15 to 29 now,” said TSG Narayannen, technical advisor (boiler) and secretary, Central Boiler Board, DIPP.
Outside members include representatives from BHEL, NTPC and BIS. BHEL was a major party to the amendments made in the Act.
As the new Act allows third-party certification agency to inspect boilers, it will help the industrial units using boilers save cost overruns occurring due to long closure of plants for inspection. It will help the industry clamp down on corruption prevalent among boiler inspectors. International agencies like Bureau Veritas and Lloyds Register Asia have already evinced interest in third-party certification of boilers.
India has around 70,000 registered boilers and only 250 boiler inspectors. The shortage of inspectors often resulted in closure of plants for long durations.
Globally, inspection of boilers is done by internationally accredited private agencies with uniform standards. But, in India, only state-appointed inspectors were authorised to carry out inspection and certification of boilers until now.