Put on hold privatisation of electricity distribution: AIPEF

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The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Thursday urged the government to put on hold the privatisation of electricity distribution entities. “Government must put on hold the privatisation of electricity distribution and stop entrusting the electricity departments of union territories to private enterprises,” All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said in a statement.

The federation mentioned that neither the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2021 nor the standard bidding document has been finalised but the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Dadra Nagar Haveli are moving very fast towards the privatisation of their electricity departments.

The standard bid documents (SBD) for privatizing electricity distribution were put on the Power Ministry’s website on September 22, 2020, and were to be applied across the country.

Now the Power Ministry has stated in the RTI reply that the SBDs have still not been finalised, the federation claimed. This reply puts a question mark over the entire bidding process of UTs privatisation process, it pointed out.

While in Chandigarh, the bidding was for 100% equity, in Dadra Nagar Haveli it was for 51%. There is confusion and uncertainty in overbidding the process itself, it claimed.

Source
ET Energy World
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