Sandeep Belsare, president of the association, says the affected consumers will move a petition against the tariff rise before the Electricity Appeal Tribunal in Delhi. Express
The Pimpri Chinchwad Small and Medium Scale Industries Association has claimed that the increase in power tariff will hit the members and the agriculture sector the most. Sandeep Belsare, president of the association, said the new tariff has been effected without taking the ground reality in consideration.
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission, on September 12 allowed a petition of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in relation to truing up of Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for 2015-16 and 2016-17 fiscals as well as provisional truing up of ARR for the last fiscal. The petition also dealt with tariff for the current and the next fiscal. The regulator had received more than 4,000 objections from people regarding the petition.
Belsare, in a press statement, said the tariff rise of 2016 had effected a rise of 1.5-2 per cent. “Following the recent decision of the regulator industry will be forced to pay a 4 per cent rise and from April 1, 2019 the tariff rise will be 8 per cent,” he said. The decision has also effected a decrease in the power factor incentive from 7 per cent to 3.5 per cent. It will result in an increase of 8 per cent tariff rise for low tension (LT) industrial consumers and a similar rise for high tension industrial consumers.
Four power distribution companies, Belsare said, were allowed an increase in tariff by the regulator. While the tariff rise for the other three power distribution companies was negligible, for MSEDCL, it was a 15 per cent rise. “This rise was only allowed for the power discom as it is a government undertaking,” he alleged. The commission, Belsare said, had not taken into consideration the recommendations made by IIT, Bombay, or the report prepared by the Agriculture Pump Users’ Commission. “The decision is against the principles of fair and the welfare of the consumer,” he said.
Belsare said the affected consumers will be moving a petition against the tariff rise before the Electricity Appeal Tribunal in New Delhi. “Instead of trying to reduce their administrative expenses and corruption, the power disscom had decided pass on their losses to consumers. Unfortunately, the commission has given tacit support for this,” Belsare said.