AIPEF wants Centre to defer Electricity (Amendment) Bill

HYDERABAD:  The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Wednesday asked the Central Government to refer the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 to the Standing Committee for Energy, ahead of the proposed meeting through video conference by Union Power Minister with all the Chief Ministers on the Bill.

The Federation said it would give all the stakeholders an adequate opportunity to appear before the Committee and make their written and verbal submissions. The Federation also wanted that the Union Government defer the Bill, as it would not be possible to convene the Parliament session during Covid crisis. Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey also sent the copies of the letter to all the Chief Ministers. 

The field conditions in every State are different so the State government must have the freedom to adopt payment of subsidy as per its requirement and the DBT payment mode should not be made compulsory. “Further as electricity is a concurrent subject, the Centre must not force or enforce its procedure since the State has equal rights to take its decision as per its prevailing requirement,” the Federation said.

The Federation also said that since the sale/purchase of power between seller (generator) and buyer (Discom) is determined by the terms and conditions of  power purchase agreement (PPA), and since the PPA itself contains all the details regarding payment security mechanism, the Central Government has no jurisdiction and is going out of the way to interfere in a commercial - legal document i.e. PPA.