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Directing regulation!

Recent issue of a direction by the Ministry of Power to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission does not augur well for either regulatory autonomy or for the longer-term development of sector

K P Krishnan
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Illustration: Binay Sinha

In a letter dated May 8, the Ministry of Power gave an unusual statutory direction to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). The letter says that “the CERC is required to consult all stakeholders before framing regulation and the Government are the most important stakeholder. In view of the above, (the) CERC must consult the Ministry of Power in detail at the stage of formulating regulations. This will ensure that the Regulations are consistent with the Rules framed by Government and the Government’s Reforms Agenda; and will also obviate the necessity of any subsequent policy direction (by) the Government under Section l07.”
This points to a conflict. The conflict is rooted in the deeper real-world complexities of the Ministry of Power and the CERC. The experiential wisdom in the field of Indian regulation is that regulators in India have displayed many kinds of bad behaviour, and governments also show improper conduct towards the
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First Published: May 25 2023 | 10:05 PM IST

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