(ET)
The government will take a carrot-and-stick approach to address indiscipline among some power distribution companies in the proposed succession scheme to the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday).
Coupled with other proposed reforms, such as disallowing commercial losses of more than 15% to be passed on in consumer tariffs and deferring of power price hikes by regulators, the government expects to set right the electricity distribution network — the weakest but the most critical link for consumer interface in the power sector.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech, said the government is examining performance of Uday and would improve it. The government is likely to revise targets and parameters of each state depending on their issues and past performances. There will be funding available as reward to improving states for investment in initiatives such as installation of smart meters, aerial bunch cabling and system upgrade.
