Impact of Electricity Act-2003 Over the Human Face of DVC

HAZARIBAG: The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is incurring a huge financial loss and it should not have been brought under the Central Electricity Regulatory Act 2003, said Hazaribag MP Yashwant Sinha here on Wednesday.

Delivering a keynote address at a convention on Impact of Electricity Act-2003 Over the Human Face of DVC, organized here by the DVC Officers' Forum, he said by bringing the DVC within the purview of the act, the DVC was incurring huge financial losses, which would hit the development of both Jharkhand and West Bengal considerably as it was the main source of supplying power to these states which fell within the command area of the Damodar basin.

He said the DVC was formed not only for generating power like NTPC and state electricity boards, but was also formed as a statutory body for taming floods, providing irrigation, soil conservation work and afforestation work and reclaiming the wasteland in large areas of Jharkhand and West Bengal.

At present, the power tariff levied by the state electricity board stands at Rs 2.94 per unit, said the MP. The rate is considered inadequate for meeting expenditure and needs to be raised to at least Rs 4 per unit to recover the financial health of the corporation.

The DVC has started a new project to generate 8,570 MW additional power requiring investment of around Rs 36,500 crore, reportedly to realise the Union government's "Vision of Power for All" by 2012, said an official at the convention.

Sinha said the DVC's financial position further deteriorated as it failed to realise dues of Rs 2500 crore from the JSEB and the WBSEB.

Being a member of the standing committee on finance in Parliament, Sinha said he would meet both power minister Sushil Kumar Sindhe and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee along with a delegation of DVC officials and apprise the Centre about the DVC's present position.

Earlier, Sinha opened the Hazaribag chapter of the cost accountants under the Eastern India Regional Council of Institute of Cost Accountants of India.


Times of India