(a) whether attention of the Government has been drawn to the news item captioned,
`Centre fleeing States on power tariffs` appearing in the Indian Express dated June 30,
2001;
(b) if so, whether several State Governments have objected to the Union
Government`s claim of outstanding dues;
(c) if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the Government propose to bring uniformity in power tariffs throughout
the country; and
(e) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER ( SHRIMATI JAYAWANTI MEHTA )
(a) to (c) : Yes, Sir. Chief Minister, Rajasthan in his letter of June, 2001 wrote to the
Minister of Power suggesting a review of the principles of tariff fixation of the Central
Power Utilities. This issues was also mentioned in CM, MP`s letter of June, 2001
addressed to Minister of Power and CM, Karnataka`s letter of June, 2001. Following the
submission of the report of the Expert Group to suggest one-time settlement of
outstanding dues of the SEBs to CPSUs, the High Level Empowered Group consisting of
Finance Minister, Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission, Minister of Power and CMs of
some States met on 26.6.2001 and 6.7.2001. Among other decisions the Empowered
Group also recommended that the Committee on Tariff Policy set up under Special
Secretary (Power) may be broad based to include representatives of the States/SEBs and
the Committee asked to expedite its recommendations.
(d) & (e) : At present fixation of tariffs within States is done either by State
Electricity Regulatory Commission (wherever they have been set up) or by the concerned
SEBs/States. Tariff setting for central generation utilities is done by the Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission.