Latest News | Union Budget: Maha Energy Minister Says State Will Not Allow Privatisation of Discoms

Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) Maharashtra's Energy Minister Nitin Raut on Friday said the state government will not allow for the privatisation of state-run discoms.

He alleged the budget proposal to give consumers alternatives to choose their distribution company is a ploy to hand over the power sector to “crony capitalists”.

It can be noted that in the budget, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the distribution companies across the country are monopolies, run either by the government or private.

“There is a need to provide choice to consumers by promoting competition. A framework will be put in place to give consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one distribution company,” she said.

“Finance minister has unveiled the plans of dismantling the state-owned power distribution companies under the garb of curtailing monopoly. In fact the budgetary plans were made to create a monopoly by the private sector,” Raut, a Congress leader, said in a statement.

Just like the three agriculture laws, where the Narendra Modi government is trying to hand over the agriculture sector to crony capitalists, this is a plan to handover the power sector to monopolists, he said.

Terming the budget as a “disappointment”, Raut said he had requested interest free financial assistance of Rs 20,000 crore to the central government for helping the state owned power sector which incurred huge losses due to COVID-19 which has not been acceded.

Instead, the centre has offered loan at the rate of 9 to 10 per cent which was unbearable, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)