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<p>Ministry seeks immediate actions to cut down on financial losses of distribution companies. All feeders, transformers and consumers to be metered and asked the state governments to do away with human interface in metering, billing and collection of electricity dues through implementation of smart prepaid meters.</p> <p>The ministry has also asked the states to ensure that cross subsidy of more than 20% is not charged from industrial consumers and introduce differential tariffs for power consumption during peak and non-peak hours. The minister has already indicated that wilful load shedding is proposed to be penalised.</p> <p>Trying up adequate power purchase agreements and honouring them was necessary to revive investments in the sector. Before any distribution company is given a licence for a particular area, it should be able to show to the regulator that it has tied up sources of supply to meet 100% of annual average demand.</p>