The number of trade licences issued by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is a little over 50,000. The number of commercial connections that Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has under BBMP limits is a whopping six lakh.
Then what are the remaining 5.5 lakh commercial establishments that the BBMP does not seem to know of? The loophole lies in the fact that the power utility asks for trade licences for applications for commercial connections only from industries. “When we get applications for commercial connections, we ask for trade licences only from small-scale and other industries,” said B.K. Uday Kumar, chief engineer (BMAZ), Bescom.
A group of residents’ welfare association (RWA) members and the Namma Bengaluru Foundation recently took their fight against commercialisation of residential areas to Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) and Bescom, questioning them about how commercial users of residential spaces have been able to convert domestic electricity meters to commercial ones despite the fact that they are illegal.
This is why Bescom is now conducting a survey of its consumer base in Bengaluru to establish whether there are “domestic” meters clocking commercial usage levels. Though the RWAs are fighting from the angle of zonal violations, for the power utility, it is a matter of loss in revenue. This is because there is a vast difference in domestic and commercial tariffs. For every commercial establishment using a domestic space illegally, Bescom loses some money per unit.
“We are verifying these connections because they cause losses to Bescom. Small businesses sometimes do not register with the BBMP or the Commercial Tax Department. While individual buildings are easy to monitor, the difficult part is to assess big apartment buildings. We will target them first,” said P. Rajendra Cholan, MD of Bescom.
Apart from the physical survey of properties and identification by way of complaints from the public, Mr. Cholan said it was possible for Bescom to monitor the usage of suspect meters. “If the usage is consistently going above the sanctioned load for several months, we will have those inspected too,” he said.
Penalty and punishment
In the event of domestic connections being used for commercial purposes, Bescom plans to take action on two fronts: apart from initiating criminal cases through its Vigilance Department, the power utility will recover the losses by collecting a penalty, which will be the difference amount between the domestic and commercial tariff along with interest.
