AIFAP meeting calls upon all workers in the electricity sector and by all working people of India to strongly oppose the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025

Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent

All India Forum Against Privatization (AIFAP) organized an important All India meeting on “Oppose Anti-worker, Anti-farmer and Anti-social Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025” on 9 November 2025. Nearly 400 people from all over India attended this meeting.

This meeting was Chaired by Dr. A. Mathew, Convenor, AIFAP and Secretary, Kamgar Ekta Committee and addressed by Shri Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) and Convenor, Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangarsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Darshan Pal, President, Krantikari Kisan Union (KKU) and Coordination Committee Member, Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), Shri C. Srikumar, General Secretary, All India Defense Employees Federation (AIDEF), Shri Girish, Joint Secretary, Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC), Shri K.Venugopal Bhat, General Secretary, All India Electricity Consumers Association (AIECA) and Shri J.N. Shah,

Central Vice President, All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA).

Below are the main points of the opening address of Dr. Mathew.

According to the Government’s own words, the aim of this bill is to “ strengthen and reform the electricity sector in alignment with industry requirements.” The government is shamelessly admitting that this bill has the purpose, to “reform” the electricity sector for the benefit of Indian big corporates.
The opinions of all the associations of big capitalists involved in power generation, distribution and transmission has been sought.
The Government of India did not invite the comments on EAB 2025 from the electricity employees or the people of the country, its workers, farmers, youth and women.
EAB 2025 aims to privatize, commercialize, and centralize India’s power sector.
The electricity distribution network in India, consisting of lakhs of kilometers of cables, transformers and thousands of substations, has been built over the last 70 years by investing lakhs of crores of peoples money through state electricity boards.
The EAB 2025 aims to allow the monopoly capitalists to use this existing network by giving them access to it under the parallel licensing system, wherein the monopoly capitalists without any investment in creating infrastructure, can enter electricity distribution in the areas where it chooses.
The smart meter scheme promoted by the Central Government is the technological tool to enable this.
Section 61 (g) of the Bill says “ tariffs should reflect the cost of supply of electricity and also progressively reduce cross subsidies in the manner specified by the appropriate commission. Also Cross subsidies with respect to railways and manufacturing enterprises shall be fully eliminated within five years”
This means that industries which currently pay more for electricity should have to pay less. It also means that the workers and peasants who currently pay less will have to pay more so that electricity will be supplied to all at a uniform rate determined by cost of supply!!
The capitalists want to pay less for electricity so that they can increase their profits. EAB 2025 fulfils this demand of the capitalists.
If the capitalists pay less, then from where will the money come for the DISCOMS? From increasing the prices of electricity for the workers and peasants. This is an anti people, anti social policy and nowhere in the world is such a system followed.
The result of the entry of monopoly corporates to electricity distribution will result in increase in prices of electricity and a large part of the earnings of workers and peasants will go into paying for this basic need leading to increased poverty of the working people .
EAB 2025 makes it mandatory for Electricity Regulatory Commissions (ERC) to revise electricity tariffs every year on 1st of April based on the principle that entire cost of production of electricity should be recovered through the tariff. Electricity Generation, transmission and distribution require huge investments and to stipulate that the entire cost should be recovered from the consumers, the people of India is an anti-people and anti-social demand which is only meant to generate super profits for capitalists who are in the power sector.
EAB 2025 should be opposed tooth and nail by all workers in the electricity sector and by all working people of India. It puts the lives and security of 27 lakh electricity workers at risk and threatens them with job losses, contractualization of work, increased hours of work and insecurity of employment.
It will result in increased prices of electricity for the people of India and will become unaffordable to the poorest sections.
Electricity is a fundamental requirement for everyday life. Providing it at affordable rates to the working people of the country is a basic duty of the government. With this Bill, the government is completely abdicating its responsibility and is working only to increase the profits of the monopoly capitalist class.
Workers in the electricity sector and the people of India need to demand that instead of handing over the infrastructure of state discoms to monopoly capitalists, the Central and State Governments should provide enough funds to modernize power infrastructure and reduce technical losses. We should demand that all vacancies should be filled and contract workers made permanent instead of outsourcing and contractualization.
It is not only the electricity sector that the monopoly capitalists want to take over. They want to take over the public sector banks, ordnance factories, our public sector insurance companies, the profitable part of running the Indian railways, the Goods transport etc. They have forced the Central Government to pass the four labour codes, which will make it possible for these monopoly capitalists to hire and fire workers and many other such measures. It is clear that the entire economic policies are determined by the interests of these monopoly corporates and the ruling governments are only their agents to implement their agenda.

Below are the main points of the speech of Shri Shailendra Dube.

Central Govt has been trying to bring the Electricity Amendment bill from 2014. During the last 11 years it tried 5 times, in 2014,2018,2020,2021 and 2022, but each time it was defeated by the united struggle of the workers and farmers.
Section 14, 42 and 43 of the Bill is for backdoor privatization by allowing private corporates to use existing networks of state discoms.
Except Delhi and Orissa all Discoms are under state government. So when they talk of sharing network, they are talking of state discoms. They are not talking of sharing the cost of running the network. Every year demand is increasing, so new electrical lines, transformers and substations will have to be built. Who will bear these expenses? Also, the network maintenance charges, augmentation charges, who will bear? The State Discoms of course. These reforms are made in the name of tackling the losses of state discoms. So far Rs 6.9 lakh crores of losses are there of State Discoms.
In electricity there is a subsidy and a cross subsidy. Those below the poverty line, farmers and most of the domestic consumers are subsidized. Who is cross subsidizing? The industries and commercial establishments who are charged above the cost of supply. Through cross subsidy, the cost of supplying electricity at a lower rate than the cost of supply is covered by a higher tariff to industries and commercial establishments because they are operating for profit and can afford to pay.
They will eliminate cross subsidies for manufacturing, railway and metro in 5 years under the name of reducing ‘ logistics and mass transit costs’. When they remove the cross subsidy the weight will fall on the common consumers. They will also remove subsidies for domestic consumers.
Let the private licensees create their own electricity infrastructure and supply power. That is called competition. We have no problem with that.
One of the biggest drawbacks of parallel licensing is that private players will use the network of the state discoms. They will not share its cost and they will not fall under the Universal Power Service Obligation(USO) of the State Discoms. They will not go to low profitable areas. What is USO ? It is that Government Discoms have to supply electricity to anyone who demands it whether in slum or industry.
The Bill states that the State Government may exempt the distribution licensees from USO to consumers who are eligible for open access. This means that the licensees are allowed to cherry pick the customers. So they will supply to commercial and industrial establishments. So, if these customers are removed from State Discoms obligations, how will the state discoms fulfill its commitments, which is maintenance, augmentation and payment of workers’ salaries and fulfill power purchase agreements and supply power at lower rates to poor people? So, when this happens the State Discoms will go bankrupt and the entire network will be handed over to private corporates. This is a big conspiracy.
I say that this bill was drafted by the capitalists and not by the Power Ministry.
This bill is for privatization and centralization of power. Sec 166/1A is for centralizing electricity in the hands of Government of India. Central Electricity Council chaired by Union Power Minister will give three choices to State Discoms and all three choices are for privatization. This will take power from State Governments and electricity is a concurrent subject. They are taking over the power of the states.
Electricity workers have decided to hold a massive rally in Delhi on the 30th of January 2026. All those present in today’s meeting should join the rally.

Below are the main points of the speech of Dr. Darshan Pal.

Farmers today use electricity to run the tube wells. In Punjab and Haryana and some other parts of India agriculture is very electricity intensive and tubewells are a must, so from beginning the farmers have given a call to oppose privatization of electricity, they boycotted bill payment and this also helped in blocking the amendment bills earlier.
Electricity subsidy is very much required as the costs of inputs are very high as compared to the MSP or what they get for selling their produce. If they have to pay high cost for electricity, the farmers will be ruined.
Further the govt is asking for advance payment, that is what the prepaid the smart meter are for. The farmers do not get their money for crops harvested till six months after they made all money for agricultural inputs. So advance payment will be ruinous for the farmers.
That is why in the farmers agitation they had raised the demand to repeal the electricity bill.
After 13 months of struggle by the farmers, the govt assured them not only to repeal the farm laws but also, they agreed to drop the electricity amendment bill. This is the first time in the history of India that a government had to repeal an act of parliament in the face of the struggles of the people.
All India leaders should sit together & plan for a big protest. We may have differences in ideology etc. but we must still try to fight unitedly. We should take up the labour codes, the anti-people smart meter, Old Pension Scheme and demand for MSP in our charter of demands with the main demand being repeal of EAB2025.

Below are the main points of the speech of Shri C. Srikumar.

AIFAP is to be congratulated for consistently opposing the privatisation of Government and Public Sector Undertakings for the last 11 years.
NCCOEEE also is to be congratulated for consistently opposing the policies of privatisation of power sector. It is not the issue of 27 lakh power sector employees only but of all the people of our country, i.e. farmers, small and medium scale industries, all domestic households and BPL people.
Before todays meeting there was a two-day session of the National Working Committee of the AITUC. It was decided that all the constituents of AITUC will fight this bill.
This bill is an attack on the federal structure of the country. Whatever, Government of India dictates regarding electricity generation and distribution will have to be implemented by the States.
Just as the private corporates are allowed to use the Government infrastructure in the electricity sector, in the Defense Sector also similar thing is happening.
Corporatisation of the ordnance factories is the first step towards privatisation. Adani , Ambani, Tata, Bharat Forge and L&T are all given licenses and land at throwaway prices in the name of Defense Corridor. Once Government starts giving orders to them, the ordnance factory will become sick. Then they will be handed over to these same capitalists.
We had 52 DRDO laboratories and they closed them down one by one and now there are only 32 laboratories. These also they want to close down. All these DRDO labs were created with thousands of crores of people money and they have been thrown open for private corporates. They can use whatever facilities are available in the labs. From the last year 25% of the DRDO’s budget is being given to private corporates for carrying out so called research without any accountability. This is loot of people’s money.
We have to build a mass movement against EAB2025, hold seminars, public meetings, demonstrations and approach the MP’s and MLA’s.

Below are the main points of the speech of Shri Girish.

Is not getting electricity of good quality at affordable rate, one of the fundamental rights of every person? Yes, it is.
Is it not possible to ensure such a right in practice? Yes, it is
Whose responsibility it is to fulfil this fundamental right of the people? Of the Government.
Should we allow any government to look at any fundamental need of our people with a “private profit motive”? Can we allow any government to put pressure on the workers of electricity and other service sectors like public education, public transport, public banking, public insurance etc., by saying that “workers of a particular sector should ensure that sector’s viability”. For example, workers of electricity sector and consumers of electricity are blamed for “losses” of DISCOMS and then they are told to take a stand that the tariff should be increased to eliminate losses of DISCOMS.
Government owned distribution companies are incurring losses, because they are forced to buy power at rates which ensure hefty profits for private power generation companies. To ensure this, long term power purchase agreements have been signed with private power producers at exorbitantly high rates. Government owned power generation companies are forced to use imported coal for which very high rates are paid to private capitalist importers of coal, while government’s own coal mining is deliberately crippled. Since last few years Discoms are being forced to buy solar power from private producers at rates which guarantee hefty profits for private solar power companies. More than 95% of solar power is generated by private companies controlled by big monopoly capitalists. It is such policies of Government which ensure enrichment of private capitalists which are responsible for losses of DISCOMS and also higher power tariff for consumers. Workers of government owned DISCOMS and Transmission companies have in fact done their best to dramatically reduce Transmission and Distribution losses over last decade.
Crores of working people across various PSEs have been opposing bank, railways, insurance, telephone, mining etc. privatization, crores have repeatedly come out in opposition to enactment of 4 labour codes, against privatisation for restoration of old pension scheme etc. But no government listens to all such opposition.
So very clearly, in this so-called parliamentary democracy, voice of working people is only for a show. It is really the big capitalists who dictate what should be the policies of government. So, it is these big capitalists who really govern the country. It is they who really hold the reins of power in our country.
What then should be done comrades? First of all, we need to build unity across not only all PSEs but with all the working people of India and carry out an uncompromising struggle against privatization under any name or Bahana and defeat such attempts.
But that is not enough. We all need to seriously start thinking and contributing intellectually, physically and organizationally towards the goal of establishing political power of all the working and oppressed people and peasants. A political power which will ensure that all of us will have decisive say in what kind of policies are needed to ensure the prosperity of all the current and future generation of working people. It is only then we all will be really in-charge of our destiny!

Below are the main points of the speech of Shri K. Venugopal Bhatt.

AIECA is organizing electricity consumers. AIECA is working in 20 states of India. On 4th March 2025 they had a big demonstration in Jantar Mantar, against electricity privatization. On the 5th of March, 2025 they had a convention at Shah auditorium in New Delhi. On the 26th of October 2025 they had a meeting in Bangalore which was a south zone convention of consumers from southern states.
AIECA has taken up 2 demands. One is opposing privatization of electricity and the other is opposing installation of Smart Meter
The 2003 Electricity Act had the clause of Universal Service Obligation but in the EAB 2025 they have deleted this clause. In EAB 2025 they want to remove cross subsidy which will affect all working people. This is the aim of EAB 2025 and we have to oppose it.
Even though the central government was not able to pass EAB 2022, the central government tried to impose all the its provisions on the states in the last 3 years.
We have to unitedly oppose this bill. We will be with you in all future struggles.

Below are the main points of the speech of Shri J. N. Shah.

The government is focusing on service sectors like bank, insurance, electricity, railways, defence for privatisation. In the manufacturing sector there is no growth. This government is speedily implementing the policy of privatisation which the congress government had started.
The private corporates want to make profit from electricity, railways, health, education etc. which were previously under the government.
In a railway ticket it is printed that only 57% of the cost of travel is collected from the fare so there is a subsidy of 43%.
In the railways the safety category like the station masters, loco pilots signal and telecom, etc, are the only departments where they could not introduce private contractors.
Many accidents have taken place. In June2023 more than 300 people were killed in Balasore. In the latest accident in Bilaspur 10 people were killed. Loco pilots are the first to die. Loco Pilots have to run 12 different types of trains. That is a stress on us. There are vacancies of 2.5 lakhs in Railways, out of which 1.5 lakhs are in safety department.
The Government brought the national monetisation pipeline. One of its aims is to sell off the land of the PSU’s. The biggest land holders are the defense and railways. They want to convert railway stations for commercial use. In every major station in India this is what is going on. They are giving land at throwaway price for 100 years. Through their malicious propaganda, they have made rail, electricity workers, teachers etc as villains.
The labour laws have been amended to crush the protests that will arise from privatisation and other antiworker policies of the government.
No private capitalist is coming forward to build new electricity networks or new railway lines. They want to take over the existing facilities built with people money and the same capitalists fund the political parties during elections.

After the main speeches were over, the meeting continued with more than 10 participants expressing their views.