Chandigarh, May 27
The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has strongly urged the Chief Minister of Karnataka not to grant a parallel power distribution licence to Tata Power Company Ltd., warning that such a move poses a serious threat to public electricity infrastructure, consumer welfare, and the financial viability of state-owned ESCOMs.
AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey has written to the Chief Minister seeking urgent intervention against five parallel distribution licence applications filed by Tata Power before the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC). These applications cover 19 districts across all five state ESCOMs.
According to AIPEF, the applications are legally unsustainable as the Sixth Proviso to Section 14 of the Electricity Act, 2003 permits parallel distribution licences only if the applicant establishes and operates its own independent distribution network. Tata Power, however, has not disclosed any credible, funded, or technically feasible plan to set up such a network across the proposed districts.
The federation cautioned that granting parallel licences would irreversibly damage Karnataka’s power sector and consumers. It warned of the collapse of the cross-subsidy framework, which ensures affordable electricity for domestic, agricultural, and vulnerable consumers by balancing tariffs with revenue from high-paying commercial and industrial users. A private licensee, AIPEF argued, would inevitably target profitable urban consumers while avoiding rural and social-obligation categories, undermining ESCOM finances and threatening infrastructure investment and service continuity.
State ESCOMs are legally bound to supply electricity to all categories of consumers, including remote villages and economically weaker sections. AIPEF has requested the Karnataka government to issue policy directions to KERC under Section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to safeguard public interest. It further demanded a comprehensive impact assessment before any proceedings and urged that BESCOM, HESCOM, MESCOM, GESCOM, and CESC be impleaded as necessary respondents to present detailed objections on financial and technical implications.
