Monday, Jul 22, 2002
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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Special Correspondent
The assets of State Electricity Boards (SEBs), it says, are highly under-valued; the gloomy presentation of sick SEB would further cut into the value. Howsoever professedly meticulous the assets valuation rules, privatisation would thus amount to a cheap sell out. The very high corruption potential would just add to this woe. The whole assets accumulated by two generations of tax payers over half a century would thus be lost for a one-time paltry payment to the Government to squander. The drive for power sector reform in India, it says, has been opening up a vast field for corruption in which the international lenders too have been eager to claim their stakes. In Orissa, the World Bank has been a major party to misappropriate and squander a good part of its structural adjustment loan to the State in the name of consultancy fee, service charges and so on. The Government has been forced to opt for foreign firms, instead of capable indigenous firms, as consultants in the reform programme, in violation of guidelines. Discussing large revenue losses being incurred by SEBs on account of power thefts, the study says that the Government (that is the political party in power) also falls within the collusion circle of power thefts to the extent that it condones such theft without striking its coercive authority properly, lest that ruin the other side contracts it has with the erring Board and customers. The Government seeks not only to maximise its vote base to secure its survivability through populist administration in the best interests of the capitalist State, but also to gain income for its individual coalition partners. ``Ministry formation is in fact a `rent-sharing' side contract in proportion to the bargaining strength expressed at the time of reaching the coalition contract. Every Ministry or Department has its own illegal inlet of income or `sale counter' for the Minister concerned and his coterie; thus industrial concessions are sold at a price, so is a new college or liquor shop licence. ``In the power and irrigation sectors, construction contracts and purchase orders are conferred at a price. By the side contract of collusion, the Board bureaucracy may share in the price along with its supervisor, the particular ministry in Government, or gain other favours of larger budgets.'' There have come up a number of allegations of corruption involving Ministers and bureaucracy in the Kerala power sector. Some of them have recently been convicted also, the study recalls.
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