Transforming Electricity Governance in India : Has India’s Power Sector Regulation Enabled Consumers’ Power?
Consumers’ participation in regulatory decision-making in infrastructure sectors can be critical to ensure effective regulatory governance. Providing avenues for enabling consumers’ voice in the regulatory process expands the information base avail...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/05/24532524/transforming-electricity-governance-india-india’s-power-sector-regulation-enabled-consumers’-power http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22009 |
| Summary: | Consumers’ participation in regulatory
decision-making in infrastructure sectors can be critical to
ensure effective regulatory governance. Providing avenues
for enabling consumers’ voice in the regulatory process
expands the information base available to regulators in
their decision-making, and is critical for ensuring
sustainability of policy and regulatory decisions. However,
in the reform process of many developing countries’ power
sectors, the primary focus has been on the sector’s
technical aspects, with inadequate effort to improve the
experience of consumers, whether through better quality of
service or by ensuring their participation in the regulatory
process. This shortfall has often undermined the public’s
understanding of and demand for reforms, often reflected in
political reversal of key policy decisions. This paper
examines the level and quality of consumer participation and
protection in five states in India through a review of
documents, surveys of consumers, and detailed interviews
with key stakeholders. As mandated by law, all states have
established standards of performance regulations and set up
grievance redressal mechanisms; however, these bodies have
not reached the desired level of effectiveness. Similarly,
although provisions for consumer participation in regulatory
proceedings exist, their adoption is often symbolic and
without substantive and deliberative participation. Drawing
on analysis of the Indian experience and international best
practices, the paper recommends a paradigm shift in pursuing
enhanced consumer satisfaction and voice in regulatory
decision-making as a central objective of power reforms. |
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