[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sri R. Krishnamurthy, President and Sri B. Muralikrishna, MCM attended the meeting at Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) regarding BESCOM’s Tariff Revision Petition on Feb 20.
PIA has taken strong objection to the proposed steep increase in power tariff by Rs 1.40 paise per unit on an average. Along with other industry bodies like KASSIA, it has appealed for withholding the revision of power tariffs and at least put off the hike by one year till 2018.
PIA President Sri R. Krishnamurthy remarked that the proposed upward revision in power tariff has come as a double blow when industries in Peenya are 
reeling under power cuts. “Industries in Peenya are facing a peculiar situation where they are suffering from unscheduled power outages and are also asked to pay more for power! How can we keep up our production schedules and meet our commitments to our customers in time and cope with global competition in a scenario like this? We are going to work with other industry bodies like KASSIA and forcefully represent our grievances on behalf of our small entrepreneurs,” he said.
Objections filed before KERC
Industry bodies have filed their Objections before the KERC, highlighting all related issues and the lapses on the part of the ESCOMs, with a request to the KERC to dismiss their petition for tariff revision in view of their all round failure to improve the power supply in the State. The Objections filed said the proposed increase of Rs.1.40 per unit coming on top of the annual revisions is extremely burdensome for industry, especially SMEs. The ESCOMS rarely achieved the targets set whether in terms of reduction in distribution losses or reduction of costs or the maintenance of the system to the required standards. Added to this, industries also suffer from load shedding and power cuts and poor quality supplies in spite of repeated requests to improve the system. Invariably industry is forced to go for captive generation which makes it worse for them as it increases the cost of power at a time when they can hardly afford.
The industries’ share in the total consumption of power in the State has been coming down year after year which negatively affects the ESCOMs as industry is the paying sector which helps generate revenue for the ESCOMs. ESCOMs achievement in implementing High Voltage Distribution System (HVDC), energy audits and improvement in the HT-LT Ratio is very unsatisfactory. They only resort to power revisions every year without paying adequate attention to the management of power system which hurts the economy and industry in particular, a great deal.
Industries Upset Over Hike in Fixed Charges, KERC to Hear Objections Again:
After the strong protest by PIA with other industry bodies like KASSIA, the it was decided that the public hearing on electricity tariff will be held twice this time, ahead of the final tariff order issued by the KERC. This followed a forceful intervention by PIA and others against the last minute modification of the tariff hike petition by Bescom, wherein, it increased the fixed charges for High Tension (HT) consumers from an average of Rs 190 to Rs 250.
HT consumers are mainly industrial units, commercial buildings including office spaces, malls and shopping complexes and gated communities. There are about 11,000 such consumers in Bengaluru as per one estimate.
Bescom modified its tariff petition on February 17, just three days ahead of the public hearing, giving no time for the HT consumers to file objections.
In its modified petition, Bescom increased the proposed fixed charges and reduced the energy charges for all categories of the consumers. While this may be good news for some, the impact will be felt by the bulk consumers, such as industries. Describing this as a clear disincentive for industries, PIA President Sri R. Krishnamurthy further pointed out another anomaly of penalising consumers who use power during peak hours. Bescom has proposed to charge “penal” cost on consuming power during peak hours.
The industry representatives also raised other issues such as power theft, poor quality of power supply and gross mismanagement of Bescom in power purchase, supply and revenue collection.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
