The Hindu : New Delhi News : Power subsidy stays

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 23, 2006
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Power subsidy stays

Staff Reporter

We do not want additional burden on consumers: Sheila Dikshit

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Government has decided to extend till March 31, 2007, the subsidy provided to power consumers in the Capital for covering the 10 per cent hike in tariff announced by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission earlier this year. To ensure that there is no increase in power tariff due to the hike last year, the Delhi Government would continue to pay a sum of Rs. 7.5 crores per month on this account.

The decision was taken by the Delhi Cabinet late on Thursday night. While the matter had been pending for the past couple of days, it could not be taken up earlier due to the imbroglio over sealing of properties. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told her Cabinet colleagues that the Government did not want to put any additional burden on the consumers and so was willing to subsidise the tariff hike announced last year.

As for the annual revenue requirement reports submitted by the three power distribution companies -- BSES Yamuna, BSES Rajdhani and NDPL -- the generation company GENCO and the transmission company Delhi Transco Limited, it was pointed out that there was actually no revenue gap and the figures provided by the discoms to support losses were faulty. While Delhi Transco had reported a gap of Rs. 1,300 crores, the gaps submitted by the discoms were between Rs. 50 crores and 100 crores. Apart from this, the revenue deficit had gone up as adjustments had to be made for expenditures left over from last year and amounting to around Rs. 343 crores.

With discoms usually known to present inflated reports, the DERC had earlier claimed that it has tried to "bring down the gap to realistic levels" for determining the tariff. The Delhi Government had last year given a subsidy of Rs 90 crores to offset power tariffs for domestic consumers by about 50 per cent and for the agricultural sector by 100 per cent. It is the non-extension of this subsidy that is now expected to impact the power tariff rates.

In view of the developments, the new tariff order as per sources would not call for a hike in rates despite the transmission and distribution companies having submitted data that showed a huge revenue shortfall.

Experts in the field are of the view that there is a gross manipulation of figures that is done to benefit the private players at the expense of the exchequer. While till now the three distribution companies -- BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) -- have together been subsidised to the tune of a whopping Rs. 3,660 crores since they took over in July 2002 and they have also reduced thefts, still the power sector accounts are being manipulated in such a way that the tariffs continue to rise.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi