No power revenues on any project shall be distributed as profits, before or after retirement of the project debt, and nothing contained in any previous appropriation Act shall be deemed to have authorized such distribution: Provided, That the application of such revenues to the cost of operation, maintenance, and debt service of the irrigation system of the project, or to other purposes in aid of such irrigation system, shall not be construed to be such a distribution.
(July 1, 1946, ch. 529, § 1, 60 Stat. 366.)