New Delhi, Jan. 26 -- India's government issued policy guidelines last week to boost the financial prudence of loss-making power distribution utilities.

The National Electricity Policy (NEP) of 2026 has measures aimed at closing avenues for errant regulators and utilities under state governments to skirt consumer tariff revisions in line with their cost of power supply.

This sits well with the Centre's evolving programme to curb unfunded populism. Traditionally, the Centre's reform schemes tethered financial support to milestones such as price resets. They were not always effective.

Tamil Nadu did not revise tariffs for eight long years, for example, and when it finally did in July 2022, the state's electricity minister lamented that t...