The State government on Monday agreed to make a suo motu submission to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) to review the electric tariff hike and excess billing by Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML).
The information was tweeted by BJP’s Bandra MLA, Ashish Shelar, who had met energy secretary Arvind Sinh earlier in the day over the issue. Mr. Shelar also submitted a letter demanding an audit of of AEML’s billing process of the past three months and said proof is needed that billing had been done on actual meter reading and not on average consumption.
Mr. Shelar demanded that an expert committee comprising of State energy department officials, experts, consumer activists be appointed to review the utility bill increase and its causes. In a related development, Congress President Sanjay Nirupam on Monday called out MERC and the Devendra Fadnavis-led government for failing to prevent the tariff hikes. Mr. Nirupam said the government woke up late to address the complaints, and that Mr. Fadnavis’s move to order an inquiry was an eyewash. He said, “Days after citizens have been complaining of increasing tariffs, the CM finally woke up. His directions to the Power Minister, Chandrashekhar Bawankule to look into complaints of increase in power bills, are an eyewash,” he said. “The solution here is that the government must direct MERC to withdraw increasing rates. The CM must instruct MERC to withdraw hiked tariffs and re-regulate the previous rates. Clearly the government has not done enough,” Mr. Nirupam said.
Questioning the role of MERC, Mr. Nirupam alleged the regulatory body has been going easy on electricity distributors in the city. “I am questioning the role of MERC in this too. It is not protecting the consumer’s interests, but is protecting that of the distributors. The role of MERC and its officers must be investigated.”
The Hindu had reported that BJP MLA Ashish Shelar had met Mr. Fadnavis on Saturday to convey people’s concerns over the sudden and steep increase in power bills in Mumbai.
On Sunday, a day after an inquiry was launched, Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited said they would set up camps in Kandivali, Bhayander, Bandra, Chembur, Goregaon, Andheri MIDC, Andheri (West) and Sakinaka from December 1 to 15.