NEW DELHI: The government plans to make electricity billing more efficient and transparent by reducing the number of categories of consumers, which should improve tariff collection and improve the health of distribution companies. The Central government and states have begun talks to rationalise various categories of consumers. Currently , states have different and complex tariff structure with various categories and sub-categories of power consumers, officials said.A senior power ministry official said a committee constituting officials from Union power ministry , state power departments, central and state electricity regulators and Central Electricity Authority will look into simplifying categories of electricity consumers across states.“The idea is to have similar categories and sub-categories of power consumers in all states. It should then be possible to rationalise the tariffs nationally. There is certainly a case for subventions in power tariffs , but these need to be transparently budgeted and well-targeted.

Source: Economic Times October 27, 2016 05:49 UTC