Tariff rate populism has held India’s power sector back for too long: Policy reforms need to succeed
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s government issued policy guidelines last week to boost the financial prudence of loss-making power distribution utilities. The National Electricity Policy (NEP) of 2026 has measures aimed at closing avenues for errant regulators and utilities under state governments to skirt consumer tariff revisions in line with their cost of power supply.
This sits well with the Centre’s evolving programme to curb unfunded populism. Traditionally, the Centre’s reform schemes tethered financial support to milestones such as price resets. They were not always effective.
Tamil Nadu did not revise tariffs for eight long years, for example, and when it finally did in July 2022, the state’s electricity minister lamented that the hike was necessary only because it was a precondition for borrowing a sizeable sum—about 0.5% of state-level GDP—for the upkeep and upgrade of utilities. This implied that if Tamil Nadu found another way to secure funds, it would be ready to give up tariff discipline and expose its utilities to financial hazards again. In November 2025, the Union government had proposed legislative amendments that seek to raise the bar for such slidebacks.
To secure progress in the power sector, the Centre is focusing on its ‘engine-room’: state-level regulatory commissions. These regulators would quickly need to settle a utility’s tariff petition, taking no more than 120 days. Delays will need to be explained and payment defaults could trigger the extreme step of a regulator being sacked by the state government.
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