Friday, November 18 2005 18:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With a whopping Rs 28,000 crore of losses reported on account of power subsidy, Planning Commission has asked the State Electricity Boards to pull up their socks and hasten power reforms.

The total losses of SEBs on account of subsidy were put at Rs 28,000 crore which by itself is under estimation, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, adding "I am not at all satisfied with power sector reforms".

The annual plan meetings, which started yesterday will be used to impress upon Chief Ministers to take measures to clean up administration of SEBs drastically, Ahluwalia told the Economic Editors' Conference here. "I will ask the chief ministers to get their policies right in these (power) areas. These are important areas and they need to focus on setting these right," he said.

On the issue of subsidy, he said he did not have any "ideological difference as long as it was affordable and targeted".

But 'unfortunately' the power subsidies were not only improperly targeted but also, what has happening was 'theft' of power under the garb of subsidy in all states putting the SEBs in grave financial difficulties.

"The subsidies are not only not targeted, a lot of them are plain theft," he said.

A government study put the losses of SEBs on account of subsidies at whopping Rs 28,000 crore in 2002-03. A recent pilot study in two SEBs put the losses at double that of the government study. Even if the findings of the pilot study was not applicable to all SEBs, the total losses of SEBs on account of subsidy will have to be certainly higher than Rs 28,000 crore if not Rs 56,000 crore, he said.