Consumer groups, who participated in the public hearing on Bangalore Electricity Supply Company's (BESCOM) tariff hike application here on Monday, objected to it and urged Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to not allow it. BESCOM has sought an 88 paise hike across all categories.
Ashwath Narayan, MLC, urged the KERC to reject BESCOM's tariff hike application and pointed out to the misuse of Bhagya Jyoti/ Kuteera Jyoti connections. “The Government pays for 18 units of power for the Bhagya Jyoti/ Kuteera Jyoti connections. However, many connections are being misused,” he alleged. He also said that BESCOM should first plug these loopholes, besides bringing down theft and pilferage before seeking a tariff revision.
IAS officer Vijay Kumar, who reportedly took Government's permission to submit his objections to the tariff hike, said that the utility was taking more subsidies from the Government for the Bhagya Jyoti/ Kuteera Jyoti connections. “The Bhagya Jyoti/ Kuteera Jyoti connections are not billed properly. Though the free consumption is allowed up to 18 units, the average consumption is only around eight units,” he said.
Full reservoirs
Y.V. Ashwathanarayana from Consumer Care Society wanted to know when all the hydel reservoirs were overflowing, why the BESCOM did not procure 5,622 million units from hydel sources as approved by KERC.
P.L. Rao from Prashanthnagar Residents' Welfare Association said that since the domestic sector has not seen much growth, the hike for domestic consumers should not be allowed. Krishnappa from Karnataka Electricity Consumers' Organisation spoke about the need to plug transmission and distribution losses.
Increased demand
Meanwhile, P. Manivannan, BESCOM's Managing Director, justified the tariff hike proposal by claiming that the utility had to buy more power, as the consumers' demand for quality power for 24 hours had increased. This had increased in the increase in power purchase cost by 48 per cent. He also said that the variable cost of power is another reason for increase in purchase cost.
He said that to manage peak load, the utility had three options — to buy power at high cost, resort to load-shedding during peak hours or opt for dynamic load management, where all power generators sell through the exchange. “However, the last option is still weak. The cost will be passed onto the consumers who want power at peak hours at a high cost,” he said.
Rule violated
Earlier, Sridhar Prabhu, counsel for Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, charged that KERC had violated its own regulation by scheduling the public hearing early, thereby denying consumers time to file their objections to the tariff hike. “As per KERC notification, consumers had 30 working days to file objections. By scheduling the public hearing on Monday, BESCOM consumers have been cheated of two working days. We have challenged this violation in the High Court of Karnataka,” he said. However, KERC chairperson M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy said that since the matter was in court, he would not want to comment on it. He adjourned further hearing to September 22, besides extending time for filing objections to September 19.
