Power Ministry to move Cabinet in a month for amending Electricity Act

NEW DELHI: The Power Ministry is likely to approach the Cabinet within a month on the issue of amending the Electricity Act 2003.

"We have received feedback from all the stakeholders, we will compile all the suggestions, analyse it and then send it to the Cabinet for approval," a Power Ministry official told PTI, adding that this process will take about a month.

He declined however to elaborate upon the changes that the government intends make to the Act.

Stakeholders who have submitted feedback on the topic include Central Electricity Authority ( CEA), Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ( CERC), Principal Secretaries of all the state governments and chairpersons of power generation, transmission and distribution utilities.

The government-appointed committee, Chaired by Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, during its meeting in June this year, had deliberated on amendments to the Electricity Act.

According to various sources in the ministry, one of the suggestions made by the committee is to have a formula which would ensure that variation in fuel and power purchase cost is recovered by the power generating firms.

The advisory group was set up against the backdrop of multiple problems, including acute fuel shortages, hurting power generation in the country.

Members of the group include Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, SBI Chairman Pratip Chowdhary and ICICI Bank Managing Director Chanda Kochhar.