Bring down LED bulb prices or govt will allow imports: Goyal

Asking LED bulb producers to bring down prices, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said he will allow "indiscriminate imports" to increase competition in case any cartelisation is found in the segment.
"If I find anything which is not fully appropriate, then I can take tough action. If any such (cartelisation) effort comes to my notice...I will allow indiscriminate imports and increase competition. The competition should be healthy and on quality and margins," he said at an event here.
"I think there is a gap between what it (price of Led bulb) is and what it should be," he said.
The recent price discovery of Led bulbs in latest biding in the government tender was about Rs 72 for a 7 watt bulb which is much lower than maximum retail price which ranges between Rs 275-500.

Government procures LED bulbs from the producer through competitive bidding of large scale quantities to achieve economies of scale.
Goyal also said the government will work on the idea of introducing online bidding for LED bulbs, on the lines of coal block auction, for improving the transparency.

On the Electricity Amendment Bill, the minister said: "I am ready absolutely. It is for the other parties to understand that India wants development... I hope the other parties are also equally ready."
The bill envisages providing customers the option to choose electricity service providers and is expected to bring more competition and improve quality of services in the power distribution segment.

On the bidding of Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) of 4,000 MW each, he said, "I believe that we are set with the document which will be bankable and on the basis of which we can see real bidding happening."
About debt ridden discoms and transmission losses he said, "That is my agenda of the current year. There is a committee headed by Power Secretary which is preparing the ground work. (It will tell us about) problems, stress points and the discoms which need assistance."
After the (committee is through with its report) we will look at specific 7-8 states which are under significant stress and handhold them to come out of these problem, he added.

However Goyal clearly indicated that the government will not give out doles or financial assistance to states to come out of the woods.
"Central government does not believe in doles. It believe in handholding and making people understand that they will have to improve their internal processes, eliminate corruption and reduce transmission losses," the minister said.
On loan write-offs of discoms he said, "That is between lender and discoms. I have no role to play. I don't restructure loans."
The minister launched a web portal which provides information regarding the power consumers who have got LED bulbs under the government scheme.