OTHER FEATURES

Monitoring Committee

The Monitoring Committee constituted by the Ministry of Power under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Power), Government of India will sanction the projects, including revised cost estimates, monitor and review the implementation of the scheme in addition to issuing necessary guidelines from time to time for effective implementation of the scheme.

Cost Norms

The cost norms for village electrification are as below. 90% grant will not be applicable to the amount of state or local taxes, which will have to be borne by the concerned State / State Utility. They would be released by the Monitoring Committee in exceptional cases to be analyzed for border area, remote districts etc.

COST NORMS FOR VILLAGE ELECTRIFICATION

FRANCHISEES

The management of rural distribution would be through franchisees who could be Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Users Association, Panchayat Institutions, Cooperatives or individual entrepreneurs. The franchisee arrangement could be for system beyond and including feeders from sub-station or from and including Distribution Transformer(s). The franchisee should be preferably input based to reduce AT&C losses so as to make the system revenue sustainable.


Revenue Sustainability

Based on the consumer mix and the prevailing consumer tariff and likely load, the Bulk Supply Tariff (BST) for the franchisee would be determined after ensuring commercial viability of the franchisee. Wherever feasible, bidding may be attempted for determining the BST. This Bulk Supply Tariff would be fully factored into the submissions of the State Utilities to the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) for their revenue requirements and tariff determination. The State Government under the Electricity Act is required to provide the requisite revenue subsidies to the State Utilities if it would like tariff for any category of consumers to be lower than the tariff determined by the SERC. While administering the scheme, prior commitments may be taken from the State Government regarding –

a) Determination to bulk supply tariff for franchisees in a manner that ensures their commercial viability.

b) Provision of requisite revenue subsidy by the State Government to the State Utilities as required under the Electricity Act.

The capital subsidy for eligible projects under the scheme would be given through REC. These eligible projects shall be implemented fulfilling the above conditionalities. In the event the projects are not implemented satisfactorily in accordance with the conditionalities indicated above, the capital subsidy would be converted into interest bearing loans.

The services of Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) have been offered to the states for assisting them in the execution of Rural Electrification Projects as per their willingness and requirement. With a view to augment the implementation capacities for the programme, REC has entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with NTPC, POWERGRID, NHPC and DVC to make available CPSUs' project management expertise and capabilities to states wishing to use their services. This is being operationalised through a suitable Tripartite / Quadripartite Agreement.