Union Minister of State ( IC) for Power, Coal and Renewable energy, Shri Piyush Goyal has expressed hope that the newly approved Discom restructuring package will find “pan India” acceptance. The Union Cabinet approved the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana, UDAY in its meeting last week. UDAY provides for the financial turnaround and revival of Power Distribution companies (DISCOMs). Speaking at an Investors Interaction meeting in Mumbai today, Shri Goyal said "the weakest link in the power value chain is distribution, wherein DISCOMs in the country have accumulated losses of approximately 3.8 lakh crore over the past few years". He said Discoms were trapped in a vicious cycle with operational losses being funded by debt. The Minister said many Discoms are not charging fair tariff for the electricity consumed and thus financially stressed DISCOMs are not able to supply adequate power at affordable rates. and development.
Salient Features of UDAY:
The new scheme UDAY lays thrust on four initiatives for financial turnaround of Discoms. (i) Improving operational efficiencies of DISCOMs; (ii) Reduction of cost of power; (iii) Reduction in interest cost of DISCOMs; (iv) Enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMs through alignment with State finances.