The Hindu : New Delhi News : BMS ups the ante against discoms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 18, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

BMS ups the ante against discoms

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

`They are hiding valuable information rendering the whole process of tariff fixation void'

NEW DELHI: With its petition to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission in response to tariff revision petitions filed by the three power distribution companies not getting any reply, the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, which had earlier sought completed and audited account of these companies for the financial year 2005-06, has lodged a complaint with the Commission. It has said that since no information was forthcoming from the distribution companies it feared that they were "hiding valuable information from the stakeholders and rendering the whole process of tariff fixation void ab initio (from the beginning)".

Having already sought details of their sundry debts, employees' cost, pay structure of the officers as also cost-benefit analysis of various schemes, their impact on revenue realisation, details of capital investment on transformers, underground cables and charges paid by the distribution companies to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for road cutting and restoration, the Sangh has stated that perusal of all these documents was essential for an objective assessment of the aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) petitions filed by the distribution companies and for furnishing of response on them.

In the letter, Rajan Gupta of BMS has also stated that the Commission instead of taking some concrete steps to obtain correct information on the issues had been postponing its decision for redress in the subsequent tariff orders and that the submissions made by the stakeholders were not being given due consideration.

Mr. Gupta also charged that the distribution companies had not provided their up-to-date balance sheets and that the balance sheets enclosed with the petitions were "not reflecting the true picture of their statement of accounts, particularly with respect to reserves, sundry debtors and profit and loss account". Also, he said, the balance sheets were not acceptable as "some of the entries made in them are in violation of the provisions of the policy directions issued by the Delhi Government and observations of the DERC made in its various earlier tariff orders".

With hearing on the petitions is due to be held from May 22 to 25, Mr. Gupta said the move means little as the relevant documents had not been provided and therefore it would be difficult for people to file their objections. Also, he said, the exercise would amount to a farce if the documents were not made available. After going through the ARR petitions, Mr. Gupta has also charged that the employee cost of the discoms was very high with BSES Rajdhani showing a 31 per cent increase and NDPL 17 per cent rise over the earlier Commission order.

Finally, Mr. Gupta said that despite increases in retail tariffs by the Commission, the average revenue realisation of the discoms had been declining right since they took over operations in July 2002. "It is estimated that the power sector has lost more than Rs 1,700 cores on this account alone apart from various other areas where the loss has not been accounted for."

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