HASSAN: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who criticised the decision of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to reduce power tariff for rural consumers, including industries and commercial establishments by 10 to 20 paise per unit and to spare the urban users from the increase, said here on

Tuesday that this would have a negative impact on electricity supply companies (ESCOMs). He termed it an "indirect attempt by KERC to liquidate the ESCOMS."

Mr. Kumaraswamy, who was on his way to Chikmagalur, took serious objection to the KERC decision to reduce the average price of a unit of power from Rs. 3.56 to Rs. 3.20 and suspected political motive behind the tariff relief. He told presspersons that the KERC had taken a "unilateral decision" without consulting Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) and ESCOMs. He sought to know how to supply power without adequate income. "It is a severe blow to the attempts of Minister for Energy H.D. Revanna to improve power supply situation in the State," he said.

Setback for farmers

Chitra V. Ramani reports from Bangalore:

A senior official of BESCOM told The Hindu on Tuesday that the company had asked permission of KERC to purchase 19,197.45 million units of power from various sources. The KERC had allowed it to purchase only 16,908 million units. "This translates into more power cuts," he said.

The official said that in the previous tariff order, the KERC had fixed power sales by the ESCOMs at 7,250 units per annum for irrigation pump sets. This year, only 6,400 units per annum had been allowed. He said that this would affect farmers.

"The tariff order may be appreciated only with respect to the reductions that have been extended to the rural sector. BESCOM will suffer a loss of Rs. 56 crore per annum," the official said.

Asked if there was any surplus funds in the company's corpus, as was claimed by the commission, he said the revenue requirement was Rs. 5,341.55 crore while what had been allowed was Rs. 4,245.63 crore.

"How can there be a surplus when Rs. 193 crore had been disallowed?" he said.

Bharat Lal Meena, Managing Director of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. and Chairman of the ESCOMs, said the KERC had "imagined" the surplus.

"If the ESCOMs had the surplus, there would have been no reason to file for the tariff revision," he said.

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