Delhites will face the pinch from November onwards
Mohammad Ali reports:
Even though tariff rates have been hiked, power bills till the month of October will come down slightly as the Power Purchase Adjustment Cost (PPAC), which is currently being levied about 6-8 per cent, has been subsumed into the tariff hike itself. So there won’t be any PPAC in this quarter (August to October).
Delhites may face the real pinch of the tariff hike from November when the DERC may again levy the PPAC in case power generation costs go up.
Though the rate for consumption of power up to 400 units has been hiked by 2.6 per cent, the bills will come down by about 2.8 per cent because of withdrawal of the PPCA.
While announcing the new tariff which comes into effect from today, DERC Chairperson P.D. Sudhakar said: “The monthly bill for about 80 per cent of the domestic consumers who have consumed power up to 800 units will come down as we have subsumed the PPAC surcharge for next three months. The PPAC surcharge will be reviewed in November.”
As per the DERC figure, the monthly bill for consumption of 200 units in BSES Yamuna area will come down to Rs. 907 from the existing Rs. 951 after implementation of the new rates.
Similarly, for consumption of 400 units, the monthly bill will come down to Rs. 2,192 from Rs. 2,297. For consumption of 800 units a month, the bill will be down to Rs. 5,346 from the existing Rs. 5,452.
In a relief measure, the power regulator has brought public parks, schools, government hospitals and institutions funded more than 90 per cent by Delhi Government or MCD under domestic category. Presently they are being charged commercial rates for consuming power.
In a good news for housing societies, the DERC has also decided to charge usual domestic rates for staircase lighting, compound lighting, water pumps and lifts as against the highest slab of domestic rates.
DERC member J.P. Singh while highlighting the positives of public hearing said: “These decisions are borne out of the suggestions we got during the public hearing. We decided that the public interest related utilities and institutions should not be charged commercial rates”.
Asked why the DERC did not wait for the ongoing CAG audit of the finances of the three discoms to be completed, a demand which was repeatedly made by the resident welfare bodies, Mr. Singh said: “If the CAG audit report highlighted financial malfunctioning on part of the discoms, that much money will be taken from them and will be factored into the tariff rates. Power generation cost should reflect in the tariff”.
Metro to pay more for power The rates for commercial categories, including Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and malls will go up by 11 per cent.
The rate for DMRC has been fixed at Rs 6.10 per unit against the existing Rs 5.50.
The rate for supplying power to the Delhi International Airport Authority has been fixed at Rs 7.90 against existing Rs 7.10 per unit.
For Railways, the rate has been fixed at Rs 6.80 per unit as against the existing Rs 6.10.
Rates go up in the NDMC areas too
Sowmiya Ashok reports:
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission on Thursday hiked power tariffs for domestic consumers in the New Delhi Municipal Council areas by as much as 9.5 per cent though bills will still be low when compared to other parts of the city.
The civic body directly supplies power to residents who normally pay rates lesser than areas under the three other civic bodies.
While earlier consumers were paying Rs. 4.35 per unit for consumption up to 400 units, now it has been hiked by 25 paise per unit to Rs. 4.60. For consumption up to 800 units, Rs. 5.40 per unit was the charge till date which will increase by 60 paise per unit to Rs. 6 with immediate effect.
‘Residents are not willing to bear any more burden’
A report from our Special Correspondent:
The East Delhi RWAs Joint Front has criticised the power tariff hike stating that the residents were not willing to bear any more burden based on the whims and fancies of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.
In a statement, the Front’s office-bearer B.S. Vohra said while the power tariff in Delhi has gone up by 8.32 per cent to 9.52 per cent, the DERC has claimed that it has provided relief by scrapping the power purchase cost adjustment (PPAC) charges.
“It clearly means that the PPAC being charged till date was totally unjustified or this time they have raised the power tariff and sooner or later they will re-impose the PPAC. Moreover, the imposition of another slab of over 1,200 units at the rate of Rs 8.75 per unit is also absolutely unjustified.”
General Secretary of United Residents of Delhi which is an umbrella body of a group of RWAs accused the regulator of acting at the behest of private power distribution companies. The RWAs termed the hike as “arbitrary and illogical” alleging it was “based on fudged accounts of these power companies”.
“There is enough evidence on record to suggest that the discoms have siphoned off huge amounts by fudging their account books. On the basis of the evidence available in public domain, a CAG audit of all the three discoms of Delhi was ordered,” said Mr. Gandhi. “The CAG has been complaining that the discoms have not been cooperating with the auditors and have so far refused to make their account books available to them. Instead of forcing the distribution companies to comply with auditing norms, the DERC has come to their rescue by announcing this undue hike,” he alleged. Rajiv Kakria of GK-I RWA slammed the DERC for hiking the tariff. “The decision to increase tariff is completely unjustified,” he said.
Varinder Arora, Convenor of the Delhi Residents Forum, said “The various reasons like inflation cited by DERC for increasing tariff have no relevance as these companies are not selling onions or tomatoes. We demand immediate roll back of power tariff.”
Congress party terms it betrayal
Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar reports:
NEW DELHI: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh on Thursday criticised the decision of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to hike the power tariff as “anti-people”. He charged that the decision was taken under pressure from the BJP’s central leadership, and the DERC’s talk of taking back the fuel charge for three months, amounted to a “total betrayal” of the people.
The Congress leader also took a dig at Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for similarly betraying the people of Delhi on the issue of power tariff by abandoning them after leaving them with just three months’ subsidy while pursuing his parliamentary election dreams.
Mr. Singh demanded that the hiked power tariff be withdrawn forthwith. He said the BJP leaders had talked of giving 30 per cent subsidy in the power bills before the Parliament and Delhi Assembly elections, and those announcements have proved completely hollow.
“People of Delhi are already burdened with soaring prices of essential commodities, and are not in a position to shoulder another price rise.”
DPCC chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said the power tariff hike has come at a time when the power bills had already doubled during the past two months. “Despite paying a higher power tariff, people are still not getting assured power supply. Two to eight hours of unscheduled power cuts have become a norm and the BJP is fully responsible for this.”
It’s a regulatory decision, says Union Power Minister
Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar reports:
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal while commenting on the power tariff hike on the social networking site Facebook said it was a “regulatory decision” by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on the basis of costing.
Mr. Goyal noted that State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) and Central Regulatory Commission (CERC) are fully independent and autonomous bodies.
As per the Delhi High Court judgement in the case of Nand Kishore Garg V/s Govt of NCT and others dated May 23, 2011, he said, it was held in Para 74(f) that “the Commission under the 2003 Act is required to deal with the aspect of tariff determination with intellectual integrity, transparent functionalism and normative objectivity and not act in a manner by which its functioning invite doubt with regard to its credibility”.
For the present, the Union Minister said, “people who consume less than 800 units a month who are under the ambit of three private discoms (TPDDL, BRPL and BYPL), will actually see a reduction in their electricity bill! This will surely provide some relief to the common man.”
Moreover, hinting at further subsidies, he said, “we will certainly find ways to see how consumers will be given further relief.”
Kya hua tera wada, asks AAP
Mohammad Ali reports:
The Aam Aadmi Party has resorted to “silent” protest while expressing its opposition to the tariff hike announced on Thursday. The party which demanded roll back of the hike and 50 per cent power subsidy put out posters at several places across the city, lashing out at the decision and ridiculing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Kya hua tera wada (what happened to your promise),” says a poster which was put up at one of the flyover, in an obvious reference to the BJP’s promise of “acche din”.
The AAP reacted to the hike by terming the move as “unreasonable” and a decision “which gives undue benefit to private power distribution companies”.
“The hike comes at a time when the people of Delhi are already facing acute hardship due to steep price rise, especially in LPG, diesel, petrol and food commodities like onions and tomatoes. The BJP has failed to deliver on its manifesto promise of reducing the electricity tariff by 30%, and has instead raised the electricity tariff by 8.32%,” said AAP spokesperson Prof. Anand Kumar.
“The BJP government appears to be too keen to help the discoms at the cost of heaping miseries on the common man one after the other. Hiking the tariffs when CAG audit of these discoms is going on is a betrayal to the people of Delhi, who have a right to know whether the tariff being charged is inflated or correct,” added Prof. Kumar.
“The citizens of Delhi feel cheated by yet another U-turn by this government. The AAP began its silent protests against the hike this evening and party volunteers organised human banner protests on main flyovers and foot over bridges across the city,” he added.
Terming the withdrawal of the Power Purchase Cost Adjustment (PPAC) charge for three months a “sham”, Prof. Kumar said, the power regulator’s move “exposes the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hypocrisy which had organised a protest, just two days back, against a possible hike in electricity tariff”.
Delhi BJP seeks subsidy
A Staffer reports:
Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay on Thursday urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to provide Rs. 800 crore subsidy for electricity consumers in the Delhi Budget which he said will provide immediate relief for at least a year.
Mr. Upadhyay said the BJP stands committed to reduce the power tariff by 30 per cent as and when it comes to power in Delhi.
He said if former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had been serious, he could have ensured a long term relief for Delhi electricity consumers.
