New Delhi, Dec. 27 :    New Delhi, Dec. 27:  The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) today warned that if the power regulator remains adamant on its new tariff norms, the country will have to live with power shortages for several years to come because there will be no great incentive for power producers to raise their generation capacities. NTPC, the country's largest power producer in the country, cautioned the government that if the power public sector company implements the availability-based tariff norms as prescribed by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the power sector regulator, it will be able to add only 7,930 megawatt of power till 2012 as against the target of 20,470 capacity addition and a total capacity addition of 40,145 mw by March 2012. NTPC is up in arms against implementation of availability based tariff (ABT) since it was first introduced in January 2000. ABT is a mechanism to determine tariff based on (a) the fixed amount of power to be generated for supplying to State Electricity Boards (SEBs), and (b) the actual power used by SEBs and the cost incurred by power generators. NTPC chairman cum managing director C.P. Jain claimed, 'There are more disincentives for us in the power tariff norms under the ABT schemes formulated by CERC and we feel that the regulator has not taken into account the policy issues which the government has spelt out for the sector while calculating the ABT.' Power shortages has been the biggest infrastructural constraint cited by industry in the recent CII business confidence survey. If the projections made by NTPC are accepted, then the road ahead for power generation looks grim. 'This will be a major burden not only for us but would also stifle our efforts to expand. To set up more generating units we need resources. If the ABT is implemented as suggested by CERC we are bound to loose revenue and with already many SEBs not clearing their outstanding dues the company will become sick,' said a senior executive in NTPC. Sources also claimed, 'NTPC would stand to suffer a substantial reduction of revenue as a result of the Commission's order to adopt Target Availability levels.'