The Union Cabinet on 30th June  approved amendments in the existing provisions of the Tariff Policy for providing specific exemptions in the Hydro and Transmission Sectors from the mandatory tariff based competitive bidding which came into effect from 6.1.2011. The Cabinet also approved the proposal to provide a level playing field to State controller / owned Hydro Projects vis-à-vis the private sector developers in the matter of merchant sale of power by suitable amendments in the existing clauses 5.1 and 7.1 of the Tariff Policy, 2006.The following proposals were approved: 

(i) Exemption to the all Hydro Electric projects from the mandatory competitive bidding till 31.12.2015 subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. 

(ii) provisions of a level playing field to State controlled/ owned Hydro Projects vis¬-a-vis Hydro Projects in the private sector. 

(iii) exemption to the intra-state transmission sector from the mandatory competitive bidding for another two years i.e. upto 5.1.2013; and

(iv) exemption of experimental works for 1200 KV HVDC line in the transmission sector from the realm of tariff based competitive bidding and the works required to be done to cater to an urgent situation or which are required in a compressed time schedule by CTU/STUs as decided by the Central Government in a case to case basis. 

The Tariff Policy was notified by the Central Government on January 6, 2006 and was subsequently amended vide Resolution dated March 31, 2008 and January 22, 2011