Govt eases 79 compliances related to power sector in 2021
New Delhi: The government in 2021 eased 79 "burdensome" compliances of the power sector under the EoDB-RCB programme, which were affecting individual consumers and industry, an official statement said Friday.
Ease of Doing Business-Reducing Compliance Burden (EoDB-RCB) is a programme of the government to reduce the regulatory compliance burden on citizens and businesses.
It focuses on reducing compliances related to licenses/certificates/ permissions, renewals, inspections, returns/filings, registers/records, decriminalisation, and involves assessment of regulations, including repeal of redundant laws, the Ministry of Power said in a statement.
The ministry also informed that it has started a fresh exercise in 2022 to ease compliances and prepared an action plan for the same, which will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will continue till March 31, 2022, while the second phase will continue till August 15, 2022.
"The government had launched a regulatory compliance portal (http://eodbrcp.dipp.gov.in), a central online repository of all central and state-level compliances to reduce the regulatory compliance burden of citizens and businesses. During 2021, Ministry of Power had eased compliances related to seventy-nine nos. of issues affecting the industry and consumer," the statement said. Listing a few significant steps taken by organisations under it, the ministry said the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has simplified the implementation of the Standards & Labelling (S&L) programme. It had also introduced digitalisation and online tracking of the status of an application for manufacturers.
A helpdesk has also been created to resolve grievances of Designated Consumers (DCs). In the second phase of the Action Plan for 2022, BEE also plans to introduce QR code-based labels to strengthen star labelling and also to bring transparency for consumers, extend the validity of ESCerts till the date it is traded, and introduce online Reporting of Energy and Production related data under PAT (Perform, Achieve and Trade).
"The Central Transmission Utility (CTU) has eased connectivity bank guarantee under revised RE procedure, unlocking about Rs 400 crore for RE (renewable) developers. A positive step towards RE development in the country. Further, CTU has made available an alternate mode of payment for avoiding BG Encashment for RE developers," the ministry noted.
About 240 existing transmission lines have been made Go-Live on the PM Gati Shakti portal. This will help in better planning and approval for new transmission lines, it added.
Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) has enhanced the validity of registration for REC from 5 years to 10 years. National Open Access Registry (NOAR) to be launched to facilitate single-point access to stakeholders for approval for transacting power. The NOAR will be integrated with a single-window system.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has abolished furnishing of various formats related to the filing of statistics, returns and information; and amended the regulations related to safety requirements for construction, operation and maintenance of electrical plants and electric lines in the first phase of the 2022 EoDB-RCB exercise.
Many reports published by the CEA were also made available online. In the second phase, it will take feedback from industries/ stakeholders for easing the compliance burden on them.