The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ESCOMs have a surplus of Rs. 1,397.2 cr.

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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

ESCOMs have a surplus of Rs. 1,397.2 cr.

B.S. Satish Kumar

The finding was made after a truing-up exercise
BESCOM has highest surplus of
Rs. 835.21 crore

BANGALORE: The KERC on Thursday ruled that all the five electricity supply companies (ESCOMs) in the State had a net surplus of Rs. 1,397.20 crore with them and directed the companies to adjust this amount with their Annual Revenue Requirement for 2008-09.

The KERC, which is headed by K. P. Pandey, came out with the above ruling after a truing-up exercise of the audited accounts of ESCOMs. This finding has been included in the order issued by the commission on Thursday to indicate the steps taken to comply with the Appellate Electricity Tribunal’s (AET) directions issued to it with respect to a case in which the ESCOMs had challenged commission’s 2006 tariff order.

The ESCOMs had taken exception to some of the aspects in this tariff order in which the tariff had been reduced for various categories of consumers. The tribunal had disposed of the appeal by the ESCOMs after issuing certain directions to the commission with respect to each of the contentious issues in the tariff order. The commission has now come with an order to comply with those directives from the ATE.

As per the order, BESCOM has highest surplus amount of Rs. 835.21 crore followed by MESCOM which has Rs. 285.32 crore. CHESCOM (Rs. 135.14 crore), HESCOM (Rs. 108.34 crore) and GESCOM (Rs 33.20 crore) too have surplus funds, according to the commission. The commission has taken exception to adjusting the surplus funds against non-payment of subsidy by the State Government. Directing the ESCOMs to obtain the subsidy committed by the government, the KERC also directed the government to release the committed amount of subsidy expeditiously.

In a significant move, the commission decided against allowing interest on belated payments by ESCOMs towards power purchase costs.

Pointing out that ESCOMs levy interest on consumers if they delay payment of their monthly bills, the commission observed that it would result in payment of interest twice by consumers if it allows interest on belated payments made by ESCOMs to power generating companies.

Meanwhile, the commission has now allowed the full power purchase cost, including the full fixed charges payable to Tanir Bavi Power Company Limited as per audited accounts.

However, the exact amount has not been indicated in the order as BESCOM and MESCOM, which are buying power from TBPCL, have not separately mentioned the power purchase cost from the above source in their audited accounts, the commission said.

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