The electricity distribution companies (discoms) of Uttar Pradesh ran up losses totalling Rs 21,486 crore ($3.2 billion) by 2016, enough to pay the electricity bills of 100 million households for more than a month (at 10 units per day per household at Rs 5 per unit).
Successive governments have kept electricity prices low for political gain, keeping discoms in the red, according to a study by Global Subsidy Initiative (GSI), an arm of the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), a think-tank. Other reasons include technical losses, power theft and failure
