Power Minister Piyush Goyal said the government has set a deadline of August 15, 2022 for electrification of all households in the country and May 2018 for the electrification of all villages.
Goyal said he was happy to announce that the government will complete the task much before the deadlines set.
The minister said during Question Hour that the accumulated loss of DISCOMs has increased from Rs 2,53,700 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 3,60,736 crore in 2014-15.
As per the ‘Report on Performance of State Power Utilities’ published by Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC), the accumulated losses and outstanding debt of DISCOMs have increased from Rs 2,53,700 crore and Rs 3,04,228 crore respectively from 2012-13 to Rs 3,60,736 crore and Rs 4,06,825 crore respectively in 2014-15. “I am hopeful that we will improve the situation with the help of the state governments,” he said.
However, since launch of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) in November 2015, the participating states have provisionally reported reduction in annual losses by approximately Rs 11,000 crore from 2015-16 to 2016-17, he said.
The generation capacity from all conventional sources has increased by 99209.5 MW in the period 2012-13 to 2016-17. However, there is no established correlation between DISCOMs’ losses or debt with their generation capacity. Replying to another question, Goyal said the previous attempts at addressing the DISCOMs’ adverse financial position were limited, as they could not achieve financial and operational turnaround.
“Accumulated loss and debt kept on increasing due to several reasons which includes limitations of the scheme, limited participation of states and unsustainable operations of DISCOMs,” he said.
Goyal should be referred to as ‘Prof’ Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Thursday suggested that Power Minister Piyush Goyal should be referred to as “Professor” due to his knowledge on the power sector, evoking peals of laughter in the House. The comment from the Speaker came during the Question Hour after a long-winding speech by the minister on the status of rural electrification in the country and the steps taken by the government to improve the situation. “Naam change karna padega, Professor Piyush Goyal (Name has to be changed),” she said, prompting peals of laughter in the House.
Source: PTI
