Every discom will be making profit by 2019: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi : Minister of State (IC) for power, coal and new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal expressed confidence saying that every Discom in India will be making profit before 2019.

While speaking at The Power Focus Summit 2016, Goyal said that as far as Discoms are concerned, his bigger thrust is on operational efficiency rather than financial profits as the people of Indian cannot be burdened with 'tariff increases' indiscriminately.

Giving status update of ongoing rural electrification programme, Goyal informed, "The figure, as we speak, of villages that have already being electrified, as of today, is 5,542 villages, that's one-third of the total. There are another 1,390 villages, where electrification work is done, they are under energization".

The minister further added that the village electrification target for 2015-16 was 2,800 villages, which the Ministry has resetted to 5,800 after the Prime Minister's announcement on Independence Day, to electrify remaining 18,452 un-electrified villages within 1000 days.

"Officials have themselves fixed their target to electrify 7,000 villages by March end. I'm sure that we would be able to achieve this target", Goyal added.

Referring to the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), he said, "The agreements signed with the states specify the timelines and the reduction in losses to be achieved. The central government will monitor their work very religiously and those states that are sincere in serving their people will get full support of the central government, irrespective of political affiliations. I am sure more states including Kerala and Karnataka will join UDAY."