Industrial body locks horns with MGVCL over tariff proposal

Mehta said: “We have been fighting against MGVCL over several irregularities. The technical decisions are not in the favour of the end-users. A layman would not understand why he is to pay more for the lapses on their part.”

“As technical persons we understand that certain decisions are taken to hide their mistakes and force the end-users to pay more,” he said.

Mehta added: “In October 2009,we had filed a petition with the GERC objecting to the MGVCL tariff determination proposal for 2009-10.”

He added: “In it,we had raised the issues of increased cost subsidy violating the essence of the Indian Electricity Act 2003,non-compliance of the GERC directives to MGVCL regarding various tariff orders,dysfunctional and non-transparent fuel adjustments,the use of regulatory assets to capitalise the company’s inefficiency and thereby burdening consumers through a tariff hike.”

The MGVCL response to the petition was haphazard,said Mehta.

He said,“The MGVCL officials gave answer which contradicted their earlier reply. At one instance,they said MGVCL has proposed to the GERC to recognise revenue gap as ‘regulatory asset’ to be recovered through tariff in future. Then they said the use of ‘regulatory asset’ was not for creating background for future tariff hike. This is a reflection of the company’s poor planning.”