Punjab Newsline
Center extends dead line for unbundling of PSEB till June 15 2009
Punjab Newsline Network
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
CHANDIGARH: The dead line for unbundling of Punjab State Electricity Board(PSEB) has been extended upto June 15,2009 on the personal request of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The center govermment had askeed all the states to disband power boards and set up independent companies for handling generation and distribution of electricity as per the provisions of Electricity Act. 2003.

The official sources said Tuesday that Punjab Government has received concurrence of Government of India allowing PSEB to continue as a vertically integrated utility till 15th June, 2009. This is the ninth extension granted to state government. The last extension had expired in November 2008.

Punjab Government had been trying hard for continuation of PSEB in the present form till the elections for the Lok Sabha are completed. The center's approval has given a major relief to the state government. The PSEB, the biggest PSU in Punjab ahs a strength of about one lakh employees. The employees associations had threatened to launch agitation if PSEB was unbundled.

It is learnt that Badal had spoken to the Union Power Minister on the phone earlier this month and he was assured that another extension would be granted. Now the Government has more than three and half month to unbundle the PSEB.

PSEB’s legal status had become untenable and owing to this the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory commission had refused to entertain the PSEB’s petition for tariff hike.

The PSEB Engineers Association has suggested that it is possible to retain the board without disturbing the present set up of the PSEB to meet the legal requirements of Electricity Act 2003. This can be done by creating a new company to trade power as per provisions of the Act 2003.There are seven states in the country where the State Electricity Boards still exist due to pressure build by board employees.

According to PSEB engineers body the restructuring of PSEB is a high risk, low return and irreversible process and all the stake holders must be involved in the process. Government would have to take the responsibility of conversion of state Government loans in to equity and taking over the liabilities related to employee's retirement benefits. Failure of reform process in different states is attributed mainly to political interferences in day to day working of the state power utilities.

Delhi and Orissa are the living examples of failures of reform process. The performance of power sector and achievements depends a lot on Government support and policies, Engineer said.

However, Gujarat is an example where the reforms have yielded results where no political interference is made by BJP government.