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Power Ministry official told Business Standard “These amendments are being considered based on the deliberations at the task force headed by the Central Electricity Authority AS Bakshi. A new provision can be considered for the constitution of a review committee consisting of government officers for the review of performance of regulators and regulators can be removed for their non performance.”
However, Forum of Regulator (FoR), which a representative body of the electricity regulatory commissions has strongly opposed this move saying that it goes against the spirit of distancing of government from regulations. FoR at its recent meeting said regulatory commission is a collegiate body and its non performance cannot be a ground for removal of an individual member.
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman Pramod Deo, who also heads FoR said “In no case such a review should be done by a government committee. Instead of performance of regulator must be judged by an independent authority and could be based on peer review performance of regulator by FoR.”
The official informed that sections 62 & 63 can be amended so that all the future power requirement be procured competitively by the distribution licensees as envisaged in the National Tariff Policy. “Provision of tariff determination for generating companies by electricity regulatory commission can be excluded by amending section 62 in particular,” he said.
However, Deo said “FoR came to conclusion that no amendment of section 62 be made at this stage given the current situation especially fuel shortage. Both options of cost plus return tariff and competitive bidding method for tariff determination be continued for the present.”
VP Raja, chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) said along regulatory independence and autonomy, accountability is required. “Selection of a regulator needs to be done with extreme care. You need wise people who do not abuse the authority. I am opposed to review of performance of regulator by government but in the parliamentary democracy a committee comprising legislators from various parties can review the functioning of the regulators ones in a year. A provision of contempt of regulator on the lines of contempt of court be incorporated which is missing currently in the EA 2003,” he added.
Moreover, Jayant Deo, former member of MERC opined that that the Electricity Act 2003 is very good Act but the system has not yet understood the scheme of the Act nor vested interest are allowing competition to come. “What is required is strict enforcement by all concerned of the basic scheme that is ---de-regulation of tariff for the categories with open access (OA), declaration of OA time table, freezing of cross subsidy level and reduction trajectory, accountability of electricity regulatory commissions for planned timetable by power ministry.
Besides, implementation of Electricity Act 2003 be done under close supervision of Appellate Tribunal on Electricity or any specialist co- ordination body,” he said.
