Power users told to pay in advance
Only for large industry, claims PSPCL
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20
A cash-starved Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is now trying to generate revenue by seeking advanced consumption deposits (ACD) from its consumers even as it has failed to compensate them for charging enhanced rates which were rolled back later with retrospective effect.

Both domestic and industrial consumers have started receiving demands for deposition of ACD. The PSPCL has taken a decision to charge domestic consumers two and a half times their average two-month bill and industrial units one and a half times their average one-month bill.

The move is being seen as a step to bridge the revenue gap after the State Electricity Regulatory Commission allowed PSPCL an additional tariff compensation of only Rs 2,651 crore against Rs 9,656 crore demanded by it.

This will have a telling effect on domestic consumers, particularly the poor who are getting 100 units of power free per month but are now receiving demands for a security deposit of around Rs 3,000.

Congress legislator Sunil Jakhar, who has filed a PIL on the issue, claimed PSPCL was passing on its inefficiency to the people.

Jakhar said PSPCL aimed to collect Rs 1,304 crore through this scheme, which was no more than backdoor taxation. He claimed this was being done as banks were now refusing loans to the electricity utility.

Jakhar claimed that the government was responsible to this state of affairs. He said despite claiming that the state was flush with funds for development, the government had not taken on the liability of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) after it was split into two corporations in June last year.

Jakhar also claimed that consumers who had paid nearly Rs 1,600 crore in enhanced bills for one and a half years had only been partially adjusted for the same till now despite the rollback in the power tariff hike.

PSPCL Director Distribution Anil Verma said the Electricity Regulatory Commission had approved the levying of ACD last year. He said though notices had been issued to all consumers as per an “old circular”, the charges were presently being levied on large industrial units only.

Verma said no decision had been taken on levying ACD charges on domestic and small and medium industrial units.

He said PSPCL would give 12 per cent interest of all money collected in advance under this scheme and that the deposit would be reviewed every year on the basis of the previous years’ average consumption.