Draft Of Electricity (Rights Of Consumers) Rules, 2020

Draft Of Electricity (Rights Of Consumers) Rules, 2020

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Legislations & GS-III – Infrastructure 

In news

• The Central Power Ministry has drafted rules recently which provide for Rights of Electricity Consumers for the first time.
• Draft Rules have been circulated by Ministry of Power on 9th of September for seeking comments and suggestions of consumers up to 30th September.

Key takeaways

• According to the draft, State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) will fix average number and duration of outages per Electricity consumer per year for DISCOMs.
• Only two documents will be required for connection up to load of 10 KW and no estimation of demand charges will be required for loads up to 150 KW to expedite giving connection.
• There will be a time period of not more than seven days in metro cities, 15 days in other municipal areas and 30 days in rural areas, to provide new connection and modify existing connection.
• There will be option to pay bills in cash, cheque, debit cards and net banking.
• Bills of Rs. 1,000 or more have to be paid online.