Budget 2015 should include a package of low-cost financing, subsidies to support renewable and clean energy technology

New Delhi: India is the 6th largest country in terms of power generation and consumption. According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA), at the end of March 2014, the installed power generation capacity of India stood at 243028.95 MW, while the per capita power consumption stood at 917 KWh (2012-13).

The figures indicate extremely high power requirements in future. To meet our growing needs country has invested heavily in both renewable as well as non renewable resources. But despite such major capacity additions there have been issues in various parts of the power sector value chain which has constrained the development of Power sector.

The key issues are lack of sufficient transmission & distribution capacities, under utilization of existing capacities and bolstering energy efficiency. According to a note from Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), in the last financial year, an estimated 5,591 million units of electricity could not be cleared by the country's energy exchanges due to the lack of a transmission network. That is 16 per cent of what these exchanges could have transmitted if adequate capacity had been available. Building of transmission capacities will not only help the government achieve its aim of round-the-clock electricity.

Another area of concern is under utilization of existing capacities, currently, we only utilize 70 per cent of the existing capacity to produce goods and services.

Any growth in this, would increase the prospects of new projects and capital expenditure. Coupled with energy efficiency initiatives such as Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP) and converting street lights to LEDs we can achieve the target of 24x7 power supply with increased penetration in rural electrification.

The PM has elevated expectations of a thoroughly reformist budget. The FM must not disappoint and the industry is hopeful that he will look to deliver a robust and holistic package of fiscal incentives, subsidies, duty structure rationalization and low-cost financing to support renewable and clean energy technology.

Inder T Jaisinghani is Chairman & MD, Polycab Wires