May 22, 2012. Amid rising concerns over losses of power distribution companies, a rating system to assess their overall performance is expected to be operational by early next year, the Power Ministry said. The system would look into various aspects related to utilities, including tariff hikes and steps taken to reduce transmission losses. The Power Ministry has written to the Power Finance Corp about the same and PFC would soon appoint an agency in the next two-three months to carry out the rating of utilities. The first rating and ranking report for utilities would be ready by March 2013. There are about 73 power distribution utilities in the country. The Power Ministry is also working on restructuring the debt liabilities of discoms.