Journalism of Courage
Objections raised against proposed tariff hik
Strong objections were raised by various organisations against the proposed tariff hike by 18 per cent,and one of the complaints from the majority of those who attended Wednesdays public hearing was the increasing sense of a lack of faith in the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) about taking action against the power distribution utility.
A daylong public hearing presided over by MERC Chairman V P Raja on Wednesday at the Council Hall saw as many as 245 persons and organisations objecting to the proposed hike.
The next hearing will be on July 27 in Navi Mumbai. In his objection against the proposed hike,Vivek Velankar,coordinator of Sajag Grahak Manch claimed that the power utility had failed to collect Rs 2,000 crore from 8.4 lakh consumers who have never been issued electricity bills.
He also raised the issue of MSEDCL not following standard operating procedures. Arrears amounting to Rs 14,226 have yet to be recovered and despite these shortcomings the regulatory body has failed to take suo motu action against them,Velankar said.
This kind of inaction has led to an increasing sense of a lack of faith in the regulatory body, he said.
Ad-hoc tariff hikes are driven by litigations and interim orders and licensees could not be held accountable for any performance norms,alleged Ashwini Chitnis of Prayas Energy Group who also pointed out that the recent tariff orders lacked critical details.
Ensuring correct documentation of all submissions made in tariff hearings is of utmost importance and in this order the commission should clearly give detailed information and calculations on all matters affecting tariff such as revenue gap after accounting for fuel adjustment charge (FAC), Chitnis said.
Prayas group also proposed the creation of a new Low Tension (LT) general category consumers by including the LT Domestic and non-domestic categories. For realistic estimation of power purchase requirement for regulated business,a special tariff category for +1MW consumers was also proposed.
Through circulars dated April 24,MSEDCL had unilaterally changed the prevalent load-shedding protocol in the state.The issue was brought to the commissions notice and suo motu hearing was undertaken by the commission on May 16. The loadshedding protocol has been evolved through public consultation and has been upheld in various legal fora. Unilateral change to protocol is tantamount to denial of accountability in the crucial aspect of loadshedding,especially during summer,Prayas Energy Group coordinators pointed out and demanded that the MERC analyse whether the change in loadshedding and load management was significant to validate its claims.
President of Maharashtra Electricity Consumers Association Pratap Hogade demanded a thorough energy audit of all agriculture pumps as there were alleged discrepancies in the LT agri-meters last year. There is a need to analyse agricultural low tension/high tension consumption,he said.
Noted defence institution INS Shivaji,Lonavla too urged MERC to act upon their complaint as the power utility had brought them in the bracket of High Tension commercial category. Our rates have doubled and it is not justified as ours is a training institute,officials said. Several other organisations like Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat,Tata Motors,Kolhapur Zilla Sahkari Pani Puravtha Sanstha and others also objected to the proposal.
