Power minister RK Singh has questioned the intention of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in opposing the electricity amendment Bill in a letter asking the West Bengal CM why she wants to protect monopolies in power distribution including one in Kolkata. Banerjee had opposed the Bill, which aims to de-license power distribution, terming “anti-people” in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Banerjee has raised concerns that the entry of private discoms as competition would lead to these discoms “cherry picking” high paying industrial and commercial consumers leaving state discoms to serve poor and rural customers. “There must be competition in this sector so that people can choose a distribution company which gives more efficient service at a lower price”, Singh said in the letter adding that the private distribution company in Kolkata had one of the highest tariffs in the country and is a monopoly. “Why you want to protect this private company from competition is not clear,” Singh said. Singh also said that cross subsidy would continue post delicensing and that new players would compete under a maximum ceiling tariff set by the regulator.
