Thirteenth Finance commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar today said the price of energy should be the same for everybody and subsidy should be directly given to the targeted beneficiary.
Kelkar, who recently submitted the commission’s report to the President, strongly advocated aligning energy prices with international levels.
Though the recommendations of the commission report have not been made public, it is said to have suggested a more transparent system of oil subsidy, with a gradual move towards market-determined prices. “Every country in South Asia has energy prices that are more aligned with international levels,” Kelkar said during a discussion on a paper on India’s Energy Security at The Energy Research Institute (Teri).
He said the unique identification number could be used for disbursal of subsidy. “Days of low energy prices are over. We must accept this and design policy around it,” Kelkar added.
Saying that the cost of capital in the country would come down over the next 20 years due a high saving rate, he noted this could help move towards greater use of renewable and energy-efficient technologies.