Question : Impact of UDAY

(a) whether the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) which was approved by the Union Government on 5 November, 2015 and considerded to be a path breaking power reform to improve the fiscal health of power distribution companies has worsened their finances in the past few months;

(b) if so, the facts in this regard;

(c) whether there is an urgent need to improve and revamp the monitoring system of rural feeder system which is leading to increase in AT&C losses; and

(d) if so, the details thereof along with the steps Union Government has taken or proposes to take in this regard?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER AND
NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

( SHRI R. K. SINGH )

(a) & (b) : No, Madam. Interventions under Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana, launched by the Government of India on 20-11-2015, including reduction in interest costs & cost of power and efficiency gains have yielded encouraging outcomes. As per the unaudited data submitted by States, the participating states have achieved an improvement of 1.00% in Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses and Rs.0.17 a Unit in the gap between Average Cost of Supply and Average Revenue Realized in FY 2017.

(c) & (d) : Recognizing that feeder monitoring is an important tool for loss reduction, the Government has sanctioned an amount of Rs.233.03 crores for online monitoring of Rural Feeders in the country.

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