COVID-19 lockdown: Electricity Employees Federation opposes Electricity Bill

The Electricity Employees' Federation of India (EEFI) has opposed the Union Ministry of Power's move to circulate draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, seeking stakeholders comments during lockdown period and has demanded its immediate withdrawal.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

The Union Ministry of Power on April 17 came out with the fourth draft of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill since 2014, which seeks to set up an Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority (ECEA) with civil court power to settle disputes related to power purchase agreement between distribution companies (discoms) and generation companies (gencos).

The Ministry has sought the comments of the stakeholders on the Bill by May 8.

Opposing the draft bill, the EEFI said the proposed legislation's core intention is to expediting privatisation of the electricity industry by the earliest possible time along with distancing state governments from administering power sector.

When the whole country is busy fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unfortunate that the Power Ministry has brought this draft Bill in a hurry, the Federation said in a statement.

The EEFI along with all its members vehemently oppose and severely criticise the move on the part of Ministry of Power, Government of India and firmly demands to withdraw the notification without any further delay, the Federation. The Power Ministry had brought the first draft in 2014 seeking separate carriage and contend electricity distribution business. The Bill proposed an option for consumers to change their service providers as they do for their mobile phone service. Though the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha, it got lapsed after the dissolution of the House. The second and third drafts were circulated in 2018 and 2019. This is the fourth time the Power Ministry circulating the draft bill.