PSEB unbundling: State asks for 10th extension
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8
The Punjab Government today asked for a record 10th extension for the unbundling of the PSEB even as it has finally cleared the way for the unbundling of the state electricity utility which may be done shortly.

The current extension to put off the unbundling of the board by the Union Ministry of Power will expire on February 15. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has accordingly in a letter to Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde requested that this deadline be extended till June 15 this year.

The Chief Minister in his letter claimed that the state had already initiated the process of consultation with stakeholders to evolve a consensus on the restructuring of the PSEB and to prepare a road map for the same. Badal said the government needed more time to complete this process and appealed that the PSEB should be allowed to continue as a state transmission utility and a licensee till June 15.

The letter comes close on the heels of a strike call given by various unions of the PSEB and is being seen as a move to placate them as well as involve them in talks. The unions were also sent a fax copy of the extension request today.

Even as the government is trying for a consensus on the issue, sources said the next extension may be for a very short period only as the state is finally serious about the unbundling of the board as keeping it afloat in its present form has become unviable. The sources said the government was seriously considering trifurcating the board into separate units consisting of generation, distribution and transmission firms. An expert group has suggested this.

The sources said talks were held with the PSEB Engineers Association a few days ago also which had been assured that the new units so created after the unbundling of the board would be headed by professionals and not be allowed to become easy sinecures for retired IAS officers.

However, this decision is still to be given the final nod by the Chief Minister with some quarters calling for following the bare minimum requirement of the Electricity Act, 2003, and making a separate transmission unit only. The government will have to take into account the fact that this may not help the PSEB out of the red as investor confidence in the utility is at an all-time low.According to sources the cumulative losses of the PSEB are likely to cross Rs 10,000 crore by March this year.