The Hindu : Business : Raise domestic power rates: Montek

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Thursday, Oct 05, 2006
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Raise domestic power rates: Montek

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Wednesday favoured a higher power tariff for households, on a par with commercial establishments as a measure to discipline consumers and promote energy conservation.

Speaking at the India-IEA workshop on `Energy efficiency in buildings and building codes' here on Wednesday, Dr Ahluwalia pointed out that the higher tariff could be introduced by first supplying `X' units of power free of charge and then levying the same tariff as in commercial establishments for consumption above that level.

Urging the Power Ministry to evolve steps for rationalising energy pricing, Dr Ahluwalia noted that massive losses were being incurred by power distributors owing to the fact that a large number of commercial outfits were being metered as domestic/household. Such discrepancies stemmed from the fact that the difference in electricity tariff between households and commercial establishments was significant, he said.

Shopping malls

"You can easily take care of this problem by unifying the rates," Dr Ahluwalia said, as it was one of the easiest ways of tackling the problem. India, he pointed out, was way below the ideal levels of efficiency in utilisation of electricity.

The huge shopping malls, coming up in the metros and cities, he said, were going to put a lot of pressure on the availability of electricity.

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