Power consumers have opposed the Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) move to approach the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) seeking a hike in power tariff for 2018-19.
At a public hearing meeting chaired by KERC Chairman Shambhu Dayal Meena here on Thursday, stakeholders in Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi, Kumta and other parts too aired their grievances and requested KERC not to give approval to the proposal to hike power tariff at any cost.
HESCOM’s proposal to hike power tariff by ₹ 1.67 per unit is not advisable especially taking into consideration the fact that agricultural activities have been hampered badly due to vagaries of nature. Any hike in power tariff would only rub salt into the wounds of farmers, they said.
Earlier, HESCOM Managing Director Sundaresh Babu said that HESCOM has, during this fiscal, presented a deficit budget. Therefore, it is inevitable to propose a hike in power tariff. Mr. Babu stated that for 2020, HESCOM has to purchase power amounting to ₹ 7,682 crore. The maintenance cost stands at ₹ 894.15 crore and the administrative cost ₹ 324 crore. This apart, the cost of works of changing transformers, introducing new technology, strengthening feeder and others is ₹ 296 crore and the consumer awareness programme will cost another ₹ 50 lakh. Thus, HESCOM needs ₹ 10,007 crore for the fiscal 2019-20 and it was able to accumulate ₹ 8,027.16 crore from collection of bills leading to a deficit of ₹ 1,908 crore. HESCOM has proposed to hike tariff to overcome this loss, he said.
Mr. Babu said that HESCOM has purchased power for the fiscal 2018-19 at ₹ 4.59 per unit. KERC has suggested that the company bring down transmission loss by 15.50 % and the company was able to bring it down by 14.76 %, he added.
About the projects for this fiscal, he said that ₹ 205.35 crore has been sanctioned under the Union government’s Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) through which works of strengthening sub-transmission centres and setting up of solar panels atop government buildings will be taken up.
HESCOM has also been sanctioned ₹ 332.12 crore under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna to provide electricity to poor rural households. HESCOM has been given the target of providing electricity to 91,764 houses under the Saubhagya Yojna and so far, 35,000 houses have been provided power supply under this scheme.
Besides, three packages — ₹ 382 crore for Belagavi, ₹ 184.22 for Hubballi and ₹ 36 crore for Gokak — to lay underground cables have been sanctioned to HESCOM and the works have commenced, he added.
About the sale of LED bulbs, Mr. Babu told the meeting that so far HESCOM has sold 21 lakh bulbs each at ₹ 17. So far, 30,000 LED tubelights, each priced at ₹ 220, have been sold. HESCOM also sells low power consuming ceiling fans each priced at ₹ 1,150 and so far, 4,500 such fans have been sold, he said.
However, stakeholders S.K. Hegde, Arvind Pai, A.S. Kulkarni, among others, opposed the power hike citing agrarian crisis in the region. Further, they said that HESCOM has maintained good balance without hiking tariff from 2005 to 2008. Tariff hike could be avoided if strong steps were taken to streamline the administration, revenue generation and others.
Mr. Pai pointed out that the Union government has introduced service tax for power consumption that was in vogue from 2011 to 2016. However, due to negligence, HESCOM did not collect this amount. It paid ₹ 30 crore after the Central Vigilance team slammed it for this fault. The Union government had offered tax exemption for customers from service tax, and exemptions under several heads to HESCOM too. If HESCOM had made use of these exemptions, it would have saved ₹ 20 crore. Now, officials are sending notice to customers to pay the entire service tax amount for six years in one instalment, he said.
KERC members H.D. Arunkumar and H.M. Manjunath and others were present.
