Warning of a “fierce agitation” if the proposal moves ahead, the Federation of Karnataka Electricity Board Employees Union and Associations has opposed Tata Power Company’s petition before the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), calling it a “backdoor attempt” to privatise the State’s electricity distribution sector. The union said it would organise State-wide protests and move the court if KERC grants permission to Tata Power.

This follows Tata Power Company approaching KERC seeking a distribution licence to serve areas currently catered to by State-run electricity supply companies, including Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom).

The union condemned Tata Power’s application and objected to KERC inviting public suggestions and objections to the proposal, arguing that there is “no justification” for handing over the State’s electricity distribution sector to a private company when Karnataka already possesses the infrastructure, technical capacity and administrative system to manage it.

The union argued that the move would hand over public electricity infrastructure built over decades using taxpayers’ money to a private company driven by “profit motives”.

Union president K. Balaram said the State’s Escoms have an extensive network of substations, distribution lines, machinery and skilled personnel built with public funds, and added that allowing a private player to operate on the same network would amount to “looting public assets worth thousands of crores”. 

The union further argued that private companies would focus on profitable urban, industrial and commercial consumers while avoiding rural and loss-making areas. 

Union general secretary C. Basavanna said this would financially weaken State-run Escoms, which would remain responsible for supplying subsidised electricity to villages, farmers and economically weaker sections. 

Addressing the media on Tuesday, the union claimed that welfare schemes such as free electricity for irrigation pump sets and other subsidy schemes were sustained because of the work of public-sector employees, and warned that such welfare measures could come under pressure if private companies enter the sector without similar social obligations. 

The union also argued that privatisation could lead to arbitrary tariff hikes for consumers and alleged that private distributors could increase electricity charges under the guise of smart meters and other reforms, shifting the burden onto poor and middle-class households. 

The union also raised concerns over employment, saying the electricity sector already has more than 35,000 vacancies and that existing field staff are functioning under severe pressure to maintain uninterrupted supply. Privatisation, it claimed, would not only reduce future recruitment but also threaten the job security of permanent, contract and outsourced employees.