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The Power Finance Corporation has reported that the aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) losses of discoms have gone up from 20.7 percent in 2019-20 to 22.3 percent in 2020-21. The AT & C estimate gives us an idea of the losses a distribution company (discom) faces in its line of business. In layman's terms, if discom has received 100 units of power, the AT & C figure will tell us how many units are not recovered in terms of revenue. So, a figure of 25 per cent would mean that for every 100 units of power fed into the discom, 25 units are not recovered. Consequently, the discom has to operate with a recovery of only 75 units.

Broadly, the losses in the system comprise technical losses and commercial losses, the latter largely implying theft. Some technical losses are inevitable in a distribution system but these can vary a lot across discoms (roughly between 4 to 12 per cent) depending on the technology adopted, the condition of the distribution infrastructure etc. Commercial losses are due to meters not being read, faulty meters, meters being manipulated or bypassed etc. The Indian distribution system has always faced high AT & C losses (in excess of 30 per cent in the early 2000s) which drains the discoms financially and makes then economically unviable.

Commercial losses to discoms arise mainly from ___
A. Technical losses
B. Faulty meters
C. Meters being bypassed or manipulated
D. Meters not being read
Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

This question was previously asked in
UGC NET 2023 Electronic Science Question Paper (13-Dec-2023) (Shift 1)
The correct answer is

B, C and D only

This question asks us to identify, directly from the passage, what causes commercial losses.
The passage states this explicitly: 'Commercial losses are due to meters not being read, faulty meters, meters being manipulated or bypassed etc.' Matching this sentence to the options: B. Faulty meters — directly named. C. Meters being bypassed or manipulated — directly named. D. Meters not being read — directly named. All three of these appear as causes of commercial losses in the passage.
A. Technical losses, however, is explicitly treated by the passage as a separate, distinct category from commercial losses: 'Broadly, the losses in the system comprise technical losses and commercial losses, the latter largely implying theft.' Since technical and commercial losses are presented as two different components of AT&C loss, technical losses cannot themselves be a cause of commercial losses — so A does not belong in this list.
Therefore, only B, C, and D are causes of commercial losses according to the passage, and the correct answer is B, C and D only.

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