The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Stay brings cheer to ESCOMs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 02, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Stay brings cheer to ESCOMs

Chitra V. Ramani

Officials at CESCO said their major grouse with regard to the tariff order was the reduction in energy requirement

Bangalore: Electricity supply companies (ESCOMs) in the State have reason to rejoice, as the tariff order issued by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on October 16 has been stayed by the Central Electricity Appellate Tribunal (CEAT). With the stay, the ESCOMs will continue to charge consumers on the basis of the existing tariff.

The tariff order was to be implemented from November 1. The order was stayed following petitions filed by the five ESCOMs last week. The hearing was on Monday and the CEAT stayed the tariff order, sources at Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL).

Challenging the order, the ESCOMs maintained that the subsidy should not be considered surplus, as it was earmarked for agricultural consumers and for special schemes for the poor such as Bhagya Jyoti and Kutir Jyoti. They also maintained that the tariff order would affect their financial position and power supply would be hit. They expressed unhappiness as the KERC, in its order, had not considered the additional fixed charges paid to Tanir Bavi Power Company Ltd. despite CEAT's order in this regard.

Sources at Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) said that if the KERC tariff order were to be implemented, the company would have to suffer a loss of Rs. 60 crore annually. The State Government had set March 2007 as the deadline for regularising unauthorised irrigation pump sets in the State. However, the KERC had disallowed the power consumption of unauthorised pump sets, which was wrong since the Government itself had set March 2007 as the deadline for their regularisation, sources in the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (MESCOM) said.

Officials at Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (CESCO) said that their major grouse with regard to the tariff order was the reduction in energy requirement. "With the reduced energy, we would not have been able to supply power for even six hours a day in the coming months," the official said.

The Bangalore, Mangalore, Gulbarga, Hubli, and Chamundeshwari electricity supply companies had filed tariff petitions before the KERC seeking a hike of eight per cent so as to bridge the revenue gap of around Rs. 660 crore. The KERC studied their petitions with help from the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, and also invited the public to file objections.

Over 11,700 objections were received from the public. The KERC reduced the tariff for consumers in rural areas and ordered the ESCOMs to maintain status quo in urban areas. The commission also said that the ESCOMs were left with a surplus of Rs. 1,162.21 crore, after considering the subsidy allocation by the Government.

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