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<p>The government has issued a direction to power regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to allow changes in any central or state government duties to be passed in electricity tariffs to consumers post bidding. The industry welcomed the government&rsquo;s move and said it will expedite procedures, helping a big chunk of power projects stuck due to such regulatory issues.</p> <p>Association of Power Producers welcomes the directions issued by power ministry today. This will expedite the cases relating to pass-through of additional cost due to change in law events, and help in early resolution of regulatory dues of about Rs 18,000 crore. On an average, the necessary orders for Change in Law pass-through took 3-4 years.&nbsp;</p> <p>The government on July 29 set up a high level empowered committee headed by cabinet secretary P K Sinha and representation from the ministries of railways, finance, power, coal and banks having major exposure to the power sector to revive stressed thermal power projects. The committee would look into various issues with a view to resolve them and maximise the efficiency of investment including changes required to be made in the fuel allocation policy and regulatory framework. It will also look into mechanisms to facilitate sale of power, ensure timely payments, payment security mechanism, changes required in the provisioning norms/Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Asset Restructuring Company regulations and other proposals for revival of stressed assets so as to avoid such investments becoming NPA.</p>