The resolution was adopted by the 24th Party Congress of CPI(M)
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.