The rescheduled conference of Power and Renewable Energy Ministers of States and Union Territories, to be held on December 7, may discuss among other things the issue of extending the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme to the power sector. After Finance Ministry's Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Minister of State for Power R K Singh advocating the idea, the conference may discuss the nuts and bolts of the mechanism to transfer electricity subsidy directly to consumers from State Governments. In this context, the issue of cross-subsidy charges within the specified limit prescribed in the Tariff Policy 2016 may also come up. The conference agenda reportedly says that "One of the critical aspects of tariff setting is to enable recovery of efficient and prudent costs incurred by regulated entities to ensure the viability of the entire value chain while facilitating power supply at reasonable rates to consumers." The Ministers are also reportedly likely to adopt a resolution that "Consumers below the poverty line who consume below a specified level, as prescribed in the National Electricity Policy may receive a special support through cross-subsidy. Tariffs for such designated group of consumers will be at least 50 percent of the average cost of supply."