Radical reform of state government-owned Indian electricity distributors and suppliers will be a precondition of future central government financial assistance. This is one of the main messages of a government report published at the same time as the announcement of a program that could provide more credit to the country's financially-crippled utilities. The report said the utilities' losses could be reduced substantially over the next three years if the measures it suggests are implemented by state authorities. The 11-member panel estimated that the combined losses of the utilities could be reduced by about 20% over the period to Rupee 221.1 billion ($4.1 billion) from the Rupee 277.6 billion estimated for the fiscal year ending March 2011. The report is based on the audited accounts available to March 2010 for 15 states, which account for over 90% of Indian electricity consumption. Losses totaling Rupee 269.57 billion in FY2009/10 are projected to peak in 2010/11 and then progressively fall, subject to the implementation of the reforms.
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