Bengaluru: The public hearing on the ₹1.48 tariff hike sought by the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) ended with a twist on Monday, as the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) announced a window of 30 days for consumers to file objections to last-minute changes by the power utility.
Every year, the KERC holds public hearings on the proposed tariff hike by ESCOMS before pronouncing its order by the end of the financial year. However, this year, consumers accused Bescom of amending the tariff petition filed in December last year and adding increased demand charges along with making other changes and announcing them only on February 17, just three days before the hearing on Monday.
“During the hearing on Monday, some stakeholders opposed the application for the proposed amendments to the BESCOM's tariff petition mainly on the ground that sufficient time was not available for filing detailed objections,” a statement by the KERC said.
In its order delivered on Monday, KERC said that while the amendments cannot be considered as irrelevant, the public had the right to file objections. As a result, the commission directed Bescom to publish the summary of the amendment application in newspapers and allotted 30 days from publication for filing objections.
Amendments to Bescom tariff petition include
Additional slabs for domestic consumers and revision of tariff suggested in petition
Concessional tariff for street lights using LED bulbs
Increase in demand charges (peak usage charges) and reduction in energy charges for high tension (HT) consumers
Not many speakers at public hearing
Every year, hundreds of objections are filed and many voice their concerns at the public hearing held by the KERC on the tariff hikes proposed by Energy Supply Companies (ESCOMS).
However this year, only 25 people chose to speak even though Bescom is asking for the highest hike in recent years.
But, according to KERC Chairperson M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda, the objections were much more focused this year. “The arguments made are more crisp and focused. They raise several issues worth considering by us and Bescom as well,” he said.
The crux of the objections by trade bodies and associations is the inability of industries, who are affected by demonetisation and slowing down of business, to absorb the proposed hike.
Cross subsidy level was also discussed. “While the National Tariff Policy directs ESCOM's to recover 50% of total power cost from agriculture, Bescom data shows that the level of cross subsidy is 63% for LT4a category (irrigation pump sets below 10 HP), which is against the rule of law,” said a submission by the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC)
PeopleSpeak
“They have unbundled services to make the utilities efficient, but the results do not serve the purpose. We request privatisation of ESCOM,” M.G. Prabhakar, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
“Load shedding is killing our industries. We want separate tariff for the MSME sector,” Mallappa Gowda, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association.
