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New power tariff inadequate: engineers

Chandigarh: Dubbing the approval of new power tariff by Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) as “inadequate”, PSEB Engineers Association on Friday said the new tariff would further deteriorate the financial health of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) which in turn would adversely affect the operations of the board.

“The new tariff approved by the commission is really inadequate for the smooth functioning of the PSEB and its implementation would result in increase in the losses of the board,” PSEB Engineers’ Association, (a body of engineers), President, H.S. Bedi said. While announcing new power tariff for 2008-09, PSERC on Friday announced an average hike of 2.6 per cent on all sectors. Mr. Bedi said, the fixation of lower tariff would also force the board to take more advances from the banks to meet its regular commitments which would further push up the interest cost of the board.

According to Mr. Bedi, the board has projected cumulative revenue gap of Rs. 5254 crore however, the commission approved just Rs. 249.64 crore which is not justified.

PSEB had projected Annual Revenue Requirement of Rs. 13,855.28 crore but the projected revenue from the existing rates works out at Rs 11,739.90 crore.

Further questioning the relevance of the new tariff, Mr. Bedi said that the commissioner approved short term power purchase of 898 million units for the entire year. “However, the PSEB has already bought power over 1000 million units in just first three months of 2008-09,” he said while adding, “now you can well imagine, what is the significance of the order of PSERC?” -- PTI

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