The Hindu Business Line : PM for multi-faceted approach to energy pricing

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday said the Government would adopt a multi-faceted approach towards pricing of energy resources, including auto fuel, LPG, kerosene and electricity aimed at efficient and rational use of energy resources.

He said the absence of a rational pricing policy was the root cause of problems in the energy sector and favoured subsidies only on justified social, economic and political grounds.

"Whatever subsidies we offer, must be done in a transparent manner," Dr Singh said here, while launching an Energy Conservation Campaign on the occasion of National Energy Conservation Day.

He said in the past, private investment in the field of energy, particularly power, was encouraged without proper pricing and distribution policy and that a multi-faceted approach on pricing in all forms of energy was the need of the hour. The Prime Minister said the large amount of power theft was being sought to be covered under the garb of transmission and distribution losses as also free power to the rural sector and warned that free power was resulting in a dangerous depletion of ground water.

"The free supply of power in rural areas has the effect of not only encouraging excessive use of power when it is on offer but of also encouraging the wasteful use of ground water," he said. Calling for a national debate on economic utilisation of energy and rational pricing policy, the Prime Minister said that without this it would not be possible to address the issue of energy conservation, a must for achieving the goal of electrification of the entire nation in the next five years. He said that 56 per cent of rural households did not have access to electricity and in the case of some States the figure was as high as up to 90 per cent. Underscoring the importance of improving the quality of electricity to help increase the quantity, Dr Singh cautioned against blindly aping the West. He said that instead the developed countries should bring down their consumption to our level.

Underlining the need for rationalisation of policies in the sector, the Prime Minister said that during the last decade, the `cart was being put before the horse' when private investment were being encouraged in power generation without addressing the "issues of pricing and distribution."

Earlier, Dr Singh released a commemorative stamp on Energy Conservation brought out by the Communication Ministry and gave away awards to 38 industrial undertakings including three units of Reliance and a refinery of Indian Oil Corporation for efficient use of energy resources. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Power Minister, Mr P.M. Sayeed, said that as much as 615 MW of power was saved by the industrial units taking part in the energy conservation drive by the Ministry and participating in the award competition during the last six years.

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