KERC hearing from Wednesday

The companies have sought a revision of tariff of 51 paise per unit, while the corporation has sought an increase of 11 paise per unit as transmission charges. The power companies have cited a common tariff revision of 51 paise saying the revenue from existing tariff is insufficient to meet the aggregate revenue requirement.

Accordingly Bescom has filed a revenue requirement of Rs 8458.20 crore, Mescom has filed a requirement of Rs 1562.38 crore, for Hescom it is Rs 2574.65 crore, Gulbarga has filed a requirement of Rs 1900.44 crores and Chescom has sought Rs 1628.94 crore.  They have submitted that the power purchase cost is increasing every year and have been unable to meet the revenue requirement.

High costs

The KPTCL has mentioned about soaring inventory costs and shooting up capital expense. They have sought a revision of tariff by 11 paise per unit.  The Power utilities had called for objection from their consumers through notification in the second week of August.

The Commission will be hearing the KPTCL application on Wednesday, while the application seeking tariff revision by Bescom will be heard on the next two days. The commission will be conducting the hearing of other escoms in their respective cities.

So far five objections have been filed against the KPTCL application seeking revision, while several consumers organisations and Industrial associations have submitted their objections against the Bescom’s applications.

Appointment challenged

The hearing, which has been met with strong opposition from the Industrial community has also created lot of curiosity. Consumers forum has even challenged the appointment of a member of the commission, who has been a director of law with KPTCL.

The Industrial community had submitted to KERC stating that since the State is facing drought like situation and sought not to consider the applications of the company. However the State Government had made it clear that the increase in power tariff is inevitable.