Every Discom will be making profit by 2019: Piyush Goyal

India's Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said that I am confident that before 2019, every Discom in this country will be making profit. “As far as Discoms are concerned, my bigger thrust is on operational efficiency rather than financial profits; because I believe that we cannot burden people of India with tariff increases indiscriminately,” said Goyal at The Power Focus Summit 2016. 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. Goyal further stated that 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) , Goyal 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.”