Cabinet clears electricity policy

The Union Cabinet today cleared the national electricity policy for accelerated and efficient development of the sector.

The policy aims at facilitating open access, making electricity available to all households over the next five years and meeting the demand for power by 2012.

"The policy, under the Electricity Act, 2003, will serve as a guideline for power regulators at the centre and states," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

Terming the policy as long overdue, Chidambaram said the policy had been evolved in consultation with the state governments, Central Electricity Authority, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and other stakeholders.

Chidambaram said the policy, the details of which would be announced by the power ministry on Thursday addresses a number of issues and follows the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) regarding the commitment to provide electricity to all households.

"The policy recognises the role of the public sector as pre-eminent for additional capacity in power," he said, adding that the policy also stated that the Electricity Act recognised open access as a goal and laid down the plan for open access.

The policy also provides for the supply of reliable and quality power of specified standards in an efficient manner and at reasonable rates. It also provides for increasing the per capita availability of electricity to be increased to over 100 units by 2012.

The policy also seeks to attain the objective of a minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit per household per day as a merit good by the year 2012.

The other objectives of the policy include attaining financial turnaround and commercial viability of the sector, protection of consumers' interest and other stakeholders keeping in view availability of energy resources and the technology available to exploit these resources.