Power use often becomes theft, puts industrial units in trouble
Sections of small-scale industries have complained to the government about “harassment” they often face from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company’s (Bescom) vigilance teams, who seek to criminalise use of electricity under a wrong tariff category.
A Bescom official admitted the utility has received several complaints on this, but has not been able to do much as section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 is worded that way. The vigilance teams invoke this section as it can inflict maximum damage, but it throws a well-run industrial unit off the gear for weeks or months.
If a small-scale unit is found to be using a portion of its unit for sales purposes with power consumed under the industrial tariff, vigilance teams catch such units and say they have been “stealing” electricity by using power for commercial purposes. The utility collects higher tariff for commercial use.
The conditions of supply notified by the regulator, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), is benign on genuine consumers and says the utility should collect twice the applicable tariff in cases where consumers were using electricity under an incorrect tariff category.
