Cabinet clears power sector rescue package; Piyush Goyal says ‘Rs 4.3 lakh cr debt accumulated with discoms’

Cabinet approved a rescue package for its loss-making electricity utilities on Thursday, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said, a move Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes will increase the supply of power and help spur economic growth.

Power Minister Piyush Goyal said after a meeting of the cabinet that the government had cleared the package, which it has been working on for several months, to ease the financial crunch at state-owned utility companies.

Government unveiled several measures to save power discoms. Goyal said, “Cabinet clears financial restructuring of debt of power discoms; Rajasthan, UP, Tamil Nadu and Haryana discoms will be the most loss making.”

Goyal further said, “Rs 4.3 lakh crore debt is accumulated with discoms and the capacity to buy additional electricity had diminished. Discoms’ financial position on a steady has decline in the past five years. Government is committed to bring down losses of discoms & is introducing a slew of measures for the same.”

[“source -financialexpress”]