Economic Survey 2025-26: DISCOMs record profits for the first time in India
The Hindu
India’s energy gap between supply and demand has dropped to nil by November 2025
Making a decisive turnaround, India’s power distribution utilities – Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) and power departments recorded a positive Profit After Tax (PAT) of ₹2,701 crore last year, states the Economic Survey 2025-26. Tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday (January 26, 2026) by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Economic Survey stated that a streamlined payment discipline has helped reduce outstanding dues to DISCOMs, which reduced from ₹1.4 lakh crore (June 2022) to ₹4,927 crore (January 2026).
Listing the reforms introduced in the past year, the Survey states that DISCOMs has registered a profit from a loss of ₹67,962 crore in 2014-15. The reforms which helped this turnaround include implementation of - late payment surcharges, automatic fuel and power purchase cost adjustment on a monthly basis, passage of prudent power procurement and distribution network costs, timely recovery of costs for generators as per adjusted tariffs, effective release of subsidies, revamped distribution sector scheme and allowing state electricity commissions a reasonable leeway for return of equity (RoE).
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The improved state of the DISCOMs is also due to the reduction in Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, from 22.62% in 2014-2015 to 15.04% and improved cost recovery, states the Survey.
On the whole, the power sector saw a sustained expansion in installed capacity by 11.6% to 509.74 GW as of November 2025. India’s Transformation capacity has increased from 38,805 MVA to 60,260 MVA this year, and the gap between energy demand and supply has declined from 4.2% in 2014-15 to nil by November 2025. A legislation — the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2026, is in the pipeline in Parliament’s ongoing Budget Session to promote efficiency, competition, and financial discipline in the power sector.
Click here to read the Economic Survey 2025-26
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