The Hyderabad Karnataka Environment Awareness and Protection Organisation (HKEAPO) has opposed the plea made before Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) by Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (GESCOM) for revision of power tariff for both commercial and domestic consumers and charged GESCOM with transferring the burden of loss of power, high cost of power and other financial irregularities onto consumers.
HKEAPO president Deepak Gala in a petition filed before KERC has opposed the demand made by GESCOM for revision of power tariff. He said that GESCOM’s energy loss continued to be high at 18.10 % as against the approved distribution loss of 16.5 % by KERC.
GESCOM could have saved at least ₹ 52.85 crore by way of keeping energy loss at 16.5 %. Mr. Gala charged GESCOM with wantonly showing energy loss on the lower side.
He said that an estimated 55 per cent of the total energy sale by GESCOM was unmetered.
He said that as per the admission made by GESCOM in its application, 675 of the total 1,595 feeders had recorded transmission and distribution loss ranging from 20 % to 39 %, indicating a very high energy loss in 42 % of feeders.
Accusing GESCOM of purchasing power at a very high cost, Mr. Gala said that GESCOM has admitted that it had purchased 0.95 million units of power from Jurala Hydro Electric Scheme at a rate of ₹ 51 per unit and paid ₹ 4.95 crore.
GESCOM had also violated conditions laid down by KERC on short-term power purchase and exceeded the stipulated cost of ₹ 4.50 per unit. GESCOM had purchased 467.42 MU of power on short-term basis by paying ₹ 235.81 crore where as the actual cost should have been ₹ 210.39 crore if the cost per unit had been limited to ₹ 4.50.
Mr. Gala said that KERC had earlier rejected GESCOM’s application for recovery through tariff the payment of ₹ 262.49 crore to Pension Trust (P&G Trust). KERC had said that this amount should be paid by the State government and that it cannot be passed onto consumers. Despite this rejection, GESCOM had included this amount in the application now for fresh revision of tariff.
