NEW DELHI, Feb. 14 -- India's power sector may be in a worse state than earlier thought, with the Centre coming across instances of states failing to pay struggling distribution utilities for free power supplied to farms and unmetered consumers, though states claimed to have made substantive payments.
Free electricity to farmers and other such subsidies have burdened power distribution companies (discoms) and generators in India, where average aggregate technical and commercial losses are at 21.4%, among the highest in the world.
Even as soaring subsidy costs have left state governments with little money to spend on welfare programmes, they are reluctant to end free power supply, fearing a political backlash.
As the supply of power to ...