[Marxistindia] Resolution adopted at the 24th Congress of CPI(M)

[news from the cpi(m)]

Resolution

 

Resist Privatisation Attacks on the Public Electricity Sector

 

The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses deep
concern at the BJP-led Central government's drive to privatize all public
power utilities. They forcefully privatized the highly profitable, efficient
and low tariff Chandigarh Power Utility in an irregular manner. Similar
attacks of privatization have been unleashed on Power utilities of Uttar
Pradesh, where employees are struggling for the last 130 days. 

 

Certainly, the Central government is in real haste to privatize the state
DISCOMs. A unique regional meeting on the Power sector with several States
and UTs has been held on February 20, 2025, especially to frame the
privatization process. The government is coming with a new draft of the
Electricity Amendment Bill. But these attacks are only a fraction of the
multidirectional privatization attempts of the Central government. 

 

Already, 52 per cent of India's power generation capacity is in private
hands. Additionally, government mandate to import coal at three times the
domestic price is pushing the state-owned companies at risk. Nearly 80 per
cent of renewable energy projects are controlled by private entities today.
The Modi government is gifting out unlimited parcels of land, introducing
one after another incentive schemes, handing over critical minerals like
lithium, cobalt to private players for facilitating renewable growth. 

 

Under the National Monetization Pipeline Scheme, even renewable government
projects initiated by NTPC and NHPC will be handed over to private players
and one-sixth of the network of Powergrid will be slated for privatization.
This comes along with the directives for outsourcing substation management. 

 

Having failed to pass and implement the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, the
Power Ministry devised a mechanism to make the generators and state
distribution companies surrender to the virtual private market system where
electricity prices will be dynamic and will be fixed by private players. In
this virtual market, the tariff is frequently touching Rs 20/Unit. 

 

And this should be seen linking with the disastrous TOTEX model prepaid
smart metering project. It will finally make each and every consumer
dependent on the market forces in regard to their electricity bills. Every
individual consumer will have to pay Rs 8,000-12,000 per prepaid smart meter
with maximum lifetime of 6-7 years. Just after the installation of smart
meter, all consumers will be brought under Time of Day (ToD) tariff and
price of electricity will be much higher at evening peak demand time. 

 

Along with this, Government is trying to withdraw the cross-subsidy that was
established through a long struggle in India. Without cross subsidy,
irrigation costs will rise to unbearable heights. An abrupt shift to Direct
Benefit Transfer will deprive the real cultivators, the landless and the
tenants/sharecroppers. 

 

Certainly, this final course of attack on India's public electricity
distribution sector will lead to massive de-electrification and our food
security will be jeopardized. It is also an attack on the federal structure
of India. 

 

The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) calls upon the people of our country to
build resistance along with the struggling electricity employees, against
these privatization attacks. It reasserts that the anti-privatisation
struggle is the core of anti-private-monopoly struggle in today's India. It
is our duty to act in an integrated and united manner against this
privatization drives. 

 

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