Cesc proposes tariff hike of Rs 1.44 per unit, consumers oppose

The authorities of Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (Cesc) have proposed to hike Rs 1.44 per unit for all categories of electricity consumers. However, the proposal was strongly objected by consumers.

The Cesc authorities submitted the proposal to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) in a meeting chaired by Shambhu Dayal Meena, KERC Chairperson, at the deputy commissioner’s office here, on Wednesday.

The Cesc authorities claimed the hike is inevitable as the corporation faces shortage of revenue of Rs 1,005 crore for the financial year (FY) 2021-22. According to the authorities, the Cesc needs Rs 6,024 crore for 2021- 2022 FY and only Rs 5,019 crore will be generated through electricity bills.

Mysore Industries Association president, also former MLA Vasu urged the Commission to totally reject the tariff revision petition of Cesc and asked the commission to direct the Cesc to submit modified petition.

He also demanded for separate tariff for Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Small Scale Industries. For Small Scale Industries, the present tariff may not be increased, but it should be brought down in order to encourage the industries. Rural industries are suffering a lot due to scheduled and unscheduled power cuts, interruptions, low voltage, delay in resuming power supply.

The demand of Cesc should be rejected as power purchase cost should go down due to good monsoon. Wherein, hydropower was available to a large extent and thus, reducing the cost of purchase cost of power.

As per the tariff policy, any tariff to be fixed should be within +/-20 % of ‘cost to serve’, which is very important parameter, but Cesc has not submitted it to the commission. As cost to serve has not been finalised by the commission, it is not possible to verify whether the proposed tariff is within the limits.

The cost to serve a HT installation is very much less compared to LT power. If cost to serve is found out and tariff is fixed as per cost to serve, the tariff of HT 2 (a) category will have to be brought down by 50%, said Vasu.