AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government has revealed in the state Assembly that it spent Rs 45,933 crore in just two years purchasing electricity from private power producers, while also admitting that it cannot identify the sector-wise consumption of the electricity once it enters the grid.
The data surfaced after Shailesh Parmar, a Congress MLA, sought detailed information on the state’s electricity purchases.
Responding in a written reply on Thursday, Gujarat’s Energy Minister confirmed that the government bought 1,01,161 million units of electricity from private units during the last two years, paying tens of thousands of crores to private producers despite the state having a vast power generation infrastructure of its own.
The numbers underline the scale of the transactions. In 2024, the Gujarat government purchased 48,898 million units of electricity from private power producers at an average price of Rs 4.61 per unit.
The bill for that single year climbed to Rs 22,503 crore, reflecting the state’s heavy dependence on privately generated electricity.
The spending did not slow down the following year. In 2025 (provisional figures up to December 31), the state procured an even larger volume — 52,353 million units — from private producers.
Although the average purchase price marginally dropped to Rs 4.48 per unit, the total expenditure still reached Rs 23,430 crore.
Taken together, the figures show that more than 1.01 lakh million units of electricity purchased from private players cost the Gujarat exchequer Rs 45,933 crore in just two years, placing a massive financial burden on the state’s power distribution system.
However, the most striking aspect of the disclosure emerged when lawmakers sought to understand where exactly this purchased electricity was consumed.
When asked how much of the privately purchased electricity was allocated to sectors such as industry, agriculture or domestic consumers, the government admitted that it cannot identify the final sector-wise consumption once power enters the grid.
The official explanation was blunt. The government stated that electricity generated from multiple sources and power stations is first pooled into the grid, after which it becomes impossible to determine which specific power station or source ultimately supplied electricity to a particular category of consumer.
This technical pooling mechanism has another major implication: the government also cannot calculate sector-wise revenue generated from electricity sold.
In response to another question in the Assembly, the government conceded that because the exact source-to-sector electricity flow cannot be traced, it is also not possible to determine how much revenue was generated from electricity supplied to different sectors.
The admission has raised critical questions about data transparency and financial accountability in Gujarat’s power sector, particularly when thousands of crores are being spent annually on power procurement.
At the same time, the government’s own figures highlight the scale of the state’s power generation network.
In response to another question raised in the Assembly a few days ago, the government revealed that as of January 25, 2026, a total of 83 power generation units owned by the state government are currently operational.
These state-run units have collectively generated 51,213 million units of electricity over the past two years, highlighting the significant contribution of government-owned power infrastructure to Gujarat’s overall electricity production.
However, the Assembly disclosures now present a complex picture. Even with large generation capacity, the state still spent nearly Rs 46,000 crore purchasing electricity from private players in just two years.
The data raises a broader policy question: why does Gujarat continue to depend so heavily on privately generated power despite having significant in-house generation capacity.
Equally troubling for policymakers and analysts is the government’s admission that once electricity flows into the grid, the system cannot track which sectors consume privately purchased power or how much revenue is earned from it.
In effect, while the state can precisely calculate how much electricity it buys and how much money it spends, it cannot pinpoint where that electricity ultimately goes or how much income it generates from different consumer segments.
That gap between massive procurement spending and limited consumption-level transparency is now emerging as a key issue in Gujarat’s power economy, and the latest Assembly revelations have placed the system under scrutiny.