Kumaramangalam, who turned out to be the only Cabinet Minister to address the conference, sought to clear the impression that the Government had diluted the provisions of the Bill on regulatory commissions. ``Setting up the regulatory commission should be voluntary. States should not be forced into it. But if any state decides not to set up the commissions, then it would be a very short-sighted move,'' he said. ``Most states, including Tamil Nadu, have said that they are going ahead with the commissions and they should be in place by the end of the year,'' he added.

Private power producers lauded theGovernment's efforts to set up the regulatory commissions but were not too impressed with the other steps being taken by the Government. They said that there was a large unfinished agenda in the sector. ``There has to be more stability in the policy decisions being taken by the Government,'' said Anoop Sharma, strategy manager for UK's PowerGen India.

He outlined couple of broad areas which needed Government attention. He said that the Government must have a national energy policy so that the power, petroleum and coal sectors could work better together. This would also reduce inter-ministerial coordination and clearances which lead to delays.

The pricing of energy was a key area which had to be addressed as were deadlines to ensure that projects did not go into cost-overruns.

Constant change in policy was also criticised by Sanjay Bhatnagar, managing director of Enron India. He said that changing policies introduced unnecessary uncertainty in the sector. He also asked that changes in policy should notaffect projects which were up and running and should apply only to new projects. He said there was no reduction in the number of clearances and approvals needed to be set up and run power projects and this was contributing to the costs of creating power.