Op-Ed essay in The Hindu
Judah’s comment
It is not a day too soon to address the issue of “continuance of free power to farmers”. The successive governments by Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu have made a fetish of hanging this millstone around their own necks in total disregard to market economics. Even the very idea of discontinuing this self-destructive practice is treated as a “holy cow” to be left well alone. Indeed it is one of the few issues on which the opposing parties hold identical opinions.
The author of the article above lists several problems engendered by “free power” such as waster of power, indiscriminate drawal of ground water etc. He also highlights the huge energy subsidy bill that the state has to contend with year after year; this in spite of the reform undertaken some years ago to grasp the nettle. Sadly, the unbundling of the monolithic EBs into Generation and Transmission entities has not been allowed to achieve its logical objectives.
The free use of power in the agricultural sector makes it morally unjustifiable to curb wanton and wasteful use of this resource in other sectors. While the Chief Minister and others in the government are often seen bending backwards to attract foreign investment in the state, any discerning investing firm cannot close its eyes to the need for structural reforms in the way the state runs its affairs.
It is quite in the realm of possibility that with a profitable EB (when was the last time?) helping to bridge or narrow the revenue gap the government can comfortably pull the shutters down on TASMAC outlets, thus redeeming its pledge on prohibition.
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