Scam behind inflated farm consumption

Power planners and the public know that there are no restrictions in power supply to LT industries except during peak-time, whereas the farm sector hardly gets on an average only two hours of supply per day and that too during off-time. Consumption in the agricultural sector should, therefore, be lesser than LT industries which, however, does not hold good.

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, carried out a sample survey of farm consumption in UP during 1998 and their findings confirm that pumpsets hardly work for 1.5 hours per day and consume only 1,000 units of energy per KW, whereas the UPSEB has been inflating this consumption to 3,000 units. The survey also found out that this sector is agreeable for higher tariff, provided they get good quality, reliable power so that the use of uneconomical diesel pumping sets is discarded. It would thus not be fair to raise the tariff for farmers and put themthrough a punishing regime of poor supply when they are themselves agreeable to pay higher tariffs for quality power supply. It is on this account that about 5 million low efficiency diesel-operated pumping sets are in operation in this country.

The specific consumption in agricultural sector has now come on a par with that of HT industries which are continuous process industries and in several states like UP and Gujarat surprisingly it has even exceeded this consumption which makes a mockery of the planning agencies. It may also come as a rude shock to the Power Ministry (MoP) and the Planning Commission as they cannot evade the responsibility of presenting the basic truth to the public to whom they are answerable. Unless this mess is addressed urgently, it may become more virulent for which the Central Planners and not the SEBs may be accountable.

In the current year, the agricultural consumption may reach 3000 units per KW leaving behind HT consumption at about 2100 units which is hard tobelieve.

There is absolutely no transparency in the power sector. Even statistical information of pumping sets in operation is not reported. Instead, pumping sets energised as per programme find a place in reports, irrespective of whether they are in operation or not. Interestingly, about 15 per cent of the pumping sets stand disconnected but the MoP is reluctant to provide this information to the public. The specific consumption in the farm sector, therefore, will further go up by 15 per cent on the basis of actual number of pumping sets in operation. It may be heartening to note that the TNEB is the most transparent board as the specific consumption of pumping sets is less than half of national average, despite free power supply to agriculture.

The performance of this board may serve as a pace setter for others.There is talk of increasing power tariff in agriculture. Even the World Bank has been prophesying the same knowing very well that this sector is an off-peak consumer having only seasonal demands.This country is very fortunate to have such a massive off-peak load accounting for one-third of the demand which provides effective load management as otherwise the thermal power stations may not operate at all during low load periods. For discussion sake, even if higher tariff is enforced, it is not known how bills can be raised in absence of metered supply.

The misleading figures are a statistical fraud being perpetrated on the nation. Both the SEBs and the central planner are to be blamed for this malady. Previously it was the CEA who was monitoring consumption figures but it is now practically an appendage to the MoP. And unless it is unshackled from powerful and bloated bureaucracy, it may not have any meaningful role.The electricity consumption in agriculture in 1995-96 registered 86 billion units. Based on the past trends of this consumption and programme of energisation of pumping sets, it may exceed 120 billion units this year with a benchmark for a technical loss at 20 per cent. As the realconsumption in the agricultural sector is only a third of the inflated figures, it means that 80 billion units are entirely attributed to inefficiency and pilferage.

At the present average sale rate of over Rs 3 per unit other than agricultural consumption, the loss of revenue to SEBs works out to about Rs 25,000 crore which can be dubbed as the biggest fraud which goes unnoticed. The SEBs are thus financially choking to death.

There is over exploitation of ground resources and the water-table is declining fast. It has serious implications on environment and soil fertility which will ultimately have serious influence on the food output. Punjab is close to reaching the limits of HYV agriculture. Alarm bells have been raised by a section of Indian agriculturists of the country’s `Green Revolution’ having ended and foodgrain production declining.

This is a very serious matter which requires attention of experts. Food and population are precariously balanced and unless concerted efforts are made to raiseproduction, the population increase may create economic problems.The overall low efficiency of 25 per cent of pumping sets which leads to massive national waste of valuable energy cannot be ignored any further. In order to help small-scale industries that manufacture such sets, an improvement in technology is a dire need.

In advanced countries the farm produce is heavily subsidised to keep foodgrain prices constant and on similar lines the farm sector in this country deserves higher subsidy on foodgrains. The aforesaid scam and various other inter-linked issues present a great challenge to the government and which unless it is handled deftly, the issue may derail the economy due to the erroneous and inconsistent policies and theoretical approach of bureaucrats.

The author is the former chairman of CEA