Plea against Punjab govt with power panel
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 15
A petition has been filed under various sections of the Electricity Act against the Punjab government with the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for failing to pay the full agricultural subsidy to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB). The petition, filed by former PSEB chief engineer Padamjit Singh yesterday, has made the state Chief Secretary, Secretary, Power and chairman of the PSEB respondents in the case.

The petition claimed that levy of full tariff in case of default in subsidy payment was mandatory under Section 65 of the Electricity Act 2003. It said subsidy was not paid to the PSEB as per the time frame prescribed by the Regulatory Commission. This, it said, was clear from the annual receipt report (ARR) filed by the board on December 29 last year which said the PSEB received a subsidy amount of only Rs 1,640 crore from the government.

The petition claimed this happened despite the fact that the Regulatory Commission had directed the Board to pay a subsidy amount of Rs 2,601 crore in four advance quarterly instalments with the last one due on January 1 this year.

Padamjit Singh, in his petition, stated that the government made a budget provision of only Rs 2,000 crore for subsidy to be given to the PSEB against a requirement of Rs 2,601 crore. It said to pre-empt a repeat of last year, the Regulatory Commission must advise the government to make the required estimated provision in the budget for 2009-10.