Private sector seeks fair play in power sector

Simmering discontent plagues India’s power sector where private companies feel PSUs get undue advantage because of their status. The companies feel this trend should stop and level-playing field ensured.

- SHANTANU GUHA RAY

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has even opened the private sector to critical defence production to ensure that excessive reliance on imports is reduced. In such a context, they believe that justice will be done to them.

Complaints against the PSUs are rising in the corridors of the Power Ministry, especially from the private sector. Historically, the PSUs were established by the Indian government to promote development of the economy and infrastructure across the nation. Over the last nine years of the Modi government, India has also seriously promoted private sector investments and invited the private sector to co-develop critical infrastructure.

But some of the PSUs— monopolies in their respective segments—continue to maintain several advantages due to their incumbent status and guarantee large, positive balance sheets on the back of cost-plus contracts handed out by the government.

Considerthis. In the transmission sector, Power Grid Corporation of India operates as a near monopoly. On 15 June, a Supreme Court order stated that Coal India, a PSU, firmly comes under the ambit of Competition Corporation of India and that the CCI should also scrutinise Power Grid for anti-competitive practices, which is using its market power and PSU tag to harm competition and threatening innovation in the transmission sector.