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‘Regulatory panel took middle path’
PSERC Chairperson says it did not burden consumers with a 60 pc tariff hike
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 19
Mismanagement in the past three years has cost Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) dearly with the corporation running a revenue gap of Rs 7,005 crore which has only been partly bridged by the 9 per cent tariff hike conceded by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC).

PSERC Chairperson Romila Dubey, talking to The Tribune, said if left to the PSPCL, consumers in Punjab would have had to reckon with a 60 per cent power tariff hike. “We have helped the consumer by taking a middle path,” she said, adding the commission had walked a tightrope to look after the interests of both the electricity utility as well as the consumers.

Dubey said the effect of the 18 per cent hike allowed by the commission had been reduced as only a 9 per cent hike would be be enforced immediately.

This would ensure an additional revenue of Rs 1,325 crore to the PSPCL. Dubey said the power utility had been asked to save Rs 650 crore per annum over the next three years through measures like removing meters from houses, introducing CFLs and installing 11 kv-line capacitors.

The PSPCL had projected a total additional tariff compensation of Rs 9,656 crore as the past three-year cumulative gap, but was allowed only Rs 2,651 crore.

Dubey maintained that much of the gap was due to the inflated annual revenue receipt (ARR) submitted by the PSPCL though the latter maintains a part of ‘disallowances’ include those on salary and interest payments.

A PSERC source said some of the expenditure disallowed was incurred by the electricity utility, but this did not take away the fact that mismanagement of resources was responsible for the same.

The PSPCL has apparently been penalised for excess working capital loans. As much as Rs 3,330 crore has been disallowed in the past three years on account of interest charges (Rs 2,254 crore), employee cost (Rs 1,932 crore), fuel charges (Rs 757 crore) and power purchase (Rs 393 crore). The PSERC Chairperson, when questioned about the inordinate increase in the tariff hike for poor domestic consumers-as much as 91 per cent in the past 10 years-said it was necessary under the law to reduce cross subsidies in a phased manner.

This explains why the tariff hike in case of high-end domestic consumers was only 52 per cent in the past 10 years, for commercial consumers 41 per cent and for industrial consumers 43 per cent.