NEW DELHI: Power and renewable energy minister RK Singh on Thursday batted for pre-paid smart metering installation in the country as it will ensure improvement in billing collection. The minister while addressing the CII Conference on Smart Metering also said that politicisation of the electricity is going to be disastrous for the power sector.
“The pre-paid smart meters will give great advantage to the poor people. At the current structure if you don’t pay the bill, your electricity will get disconnected. To restore it, you have to apply for a fresh connection, which includes paper work and installation charges. Therefore, many from the rural belt avoid getting fresh connections and stay without electricity. If they have pre-paid meters, they can recharge it whenever they have money,” said Singh.
The minister said in the rural belt, the customers don’t get bills every month but after four months, that too inflated one. Therefore, people with low income can’t pay it on time, thus disconnections happen. “Only solution to this problem is technology. All the discoms should switch over to technology and go for prepaid meters,” suggested Singh.
The minister also said the government will unveil green hydrogen policy in the next 10 days. The policy is expected to have incentives like free transmission for 25 years to boost production of this clean source of energy.