Pant against free power, argues for Energy Policy

New Delhi, July 14: Former Defence Minister K C Pant today asked the Union government to re-work a new Energy Policy entailing a sustainable level of subsidies in view of the soaring global crude oil prices and argued against providing free power to farmers by certain States, saying this bred inefficiencies in the power system, "The energy prices which are ruling at 75 dollars a barrel are likely to go up further in future.

The Oil Marketing Companies have taken a hit as they have to bear a part of the brunt of the rising oil prices. This involves a high level of subsidy. But as oil prices rise further the level of subsidy will go up. The government should evolve a new energy policy taking this and other factors into account", Mr Pant said delivering a lecture here.

The address by Mr Pant, who was Deputy Chairman Planning Commission during the NDA regime, was organsied by the 'Observer Research Foundation( OBF).' Entitled 'Fifty years of India's Energy Policy', it was attended by several experts, policy makers and bureaucrats.

Mr Pant said the issue of subsidies was a "politically sensitive" one, and added that the government in power will need to take a balanced view of the matter keeping the long term interests of the country in mind.

Mr Pant, who has also been the Energy Minister, said giving free power to farmers by certain state governments would result in inefficiencies. "Free power leads to wastage. It is not free power.

Someone has to pay for it", he quipped.

He, however, was not against providing assistance to small and medium farmers.

Mr Pant said privatisation of power in Delhi has not led to expected improvement in service. "The newspapers are full of complaints about the performance of distcoms. The government and distcoms themselves need to take transparent corrective action to restore public confidence. After all, distcoms in Mumbai and Kolkata have shown that they can provide good service. In large cities, generally T&D losses the world over are a fraction of what they are in Delhi", he said.

Mr Pant said as India aims at double digit growth, the weaknesses of the power system were a matter of concern. "The absence of reliable, affordable quality power can retard development". He said the mismatch has to be tackled from both ends. The demand side has been neglected. Determined steps to implement measures of the kind adopted by Germany to increase efficiency and promote conservation can have a dramatic effect, he said.

Mr Pant said early completion of the national grid, which had begun in the 1970's, and accelerating the pace of stregthening the T and D system, will facilitiate inter-regional transfers and help control grid frequency fluctuations.

The former Plan Panel Deputy Chief said power reforms have made steady progress, but for private investment to flow into the power sector, the State Electricity Boards (SEB's) must be financially sound. Many measures have been taken, including the setting up of regulatory authorities and amending the Electricity Act.

''But the problem of cumulative losses continues to bedevil the SEBs. In some cases, the burden of subsidy has been taken over by State governments, but that is only a treatment of the symptom, not the disease'', he said.

This requires reducing T and D losses, which aggregate 40 per cent in many cases, and using modernisation techniques of international standards to correct these. "Delhi hardly offers a re-assuring example in this regard", he said.

Mr Pant said it was desirable to develop nuclear energy, particularly in view of the uneven distribution of coal and lignite and the need to reduce dependence on import of fossil fuels and minimise air pollution.

In this regard, Mr Pant said, unwavering efforts should be directed to execute Bhaba's plan to harness Thorium for power production.''That should be the focuss of policy'', he added.

UNI