The Hindu : Other States / Madhya Pradesh News : Plea against move to raise power tariff

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Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

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Other States - Madhya Pradesh

Plea against move to raise power tariff

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, OCT. 5 .The leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Jamuna Devi, has filed a petition before the

Electricity Regulatory Authority urging that the State Electricity Board's proposals for raising electricity tariffs be quashed.

In her petition, Ms. Devi has said that the Electricity Board's proposals completely neglect the consumers' interests. She asserted that it is not legally justified for the Electricity Board to raise the power tariffs as neither the Electricity Act nor the existing rules permit the Board to offset its revenue losses by putting the burden of liability directly on consumers.

Through her affidavit submitted before the regulatory authority, the Opposition leader has said that there was no justification for increasing the electricity tariff during the current financial year especially since the State Electricity Board would be bifurcated into four new companies within the next one or two months.

Ms. Devi has suggested that generation and transmission losses to the tune of over Rs. 1,500 crore could be reduced significantly by improving the Electricity Board's working and taking appropriate steps to control theft of power.

It is unfortunate that the State Electricity Board's technical losses were as high as 43 per cent as compared to the national average of 15-20 per cent, she has pointed out.

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Plea against move to raise power tariff