Review Of The Electricity Act 2003

The Indian Electricity Sector has gone through a lot of metamorphosis. The three major acts concerning the electricity sector were the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 and the Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act, 1998. With the changing times many of the acts had become passé and thus had to be reviewed. The Electricity Act 2003, enacted by the Parliament of India, received the President’s assent on 26th May 2003 and came in to force on June 10, 2003. The main aim of the Act was to consolidate the laws relating to generation, transmission, distribution, trading and use of electricity and generally for taking measures conducive to development of electricity industry, promoting competition therein, protecting interest of consumers and supply of electricity to all areas, rationalisation of electricity tariff, ensuring transparent policies regarding subsidies, promotion of efficient and environmentally benign policies constitution of Central Electricity Authority, Regulatory Commissions and establishment of Appellate Tribunal and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. However even after many deliberations there are some major issues that were overlooked. They need to be addressed promptly so that the power sector can be truly the engine of growth for the Indian Economy. This paper will briefly try to point out the troublesome issues and will try to suggest remedial measures. * Anay Vete is a Doctoral Fellow with the Dr. Vibhooti Shukla Unit, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai, working under the guidance of Dr. Abhay Pethe.