Goyal declares power a ‘national asset’, woos private discoms
23 Jun 2014
Piyush Goyal, union minister for power and coal, today called for greater private sector participation in electricity distribution.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi after a meeting with bankers to discuss funding issues for the power sector, Goyal said, ''We need to have more private sector participation in power distribution. We have to make this sector self-sustaining.
He added that the support of state governments was vital for this purpose.
''In the next few months, you can expect a significant thrust to enhance the transmission and distribution infrastructure in the country from wiling states, banks and the central government,'' the minister said.
Goyal said bankers had expressed concerns about fuel supply and power purchase agreement problems as their main concerns in the sector.
''In today's meeting, we came to a consensus that power generation is a national asset,'' he said.
''We are not looking at great changes in the Reserve Bank of India regulations [on lending to this sector] as we believe that the solutions lie within the system. Everybody is ready to work together to resolve the problems of the power sector.''
Goyal said he was very confident of giving results in a short time and said that bankers will meet with various officials after a month to discuss last-mile funding requirements.
