Consumers upset over power tariff hike in city ……..Chittaranjan Tembhekar
Mumbai: The hike in power tariff by BEST and Reliance in Mumbai has drawn sharp criticism from consumer and political forums. BEST committee members led by its chairman and BJP leader Dilip Patel and Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu on Tuesday protested against the hike and warned of intense agitation if MERC failed to withdraw it.
“We have urged the BEST general manager to go in appeal against the hike during the review and withdraw it in the benefit of consumers,’’ said Patel.
Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a forum of consumers in the city, has cited that though an average power hike of 9.5% seemed less for Reliance’s residential consumers, the calculations based on unit-wise consumption showed 44% to 60% hike in actual billing.
“Our bill calculations show that residents in suburbs consuming 100 units will have to pay an average Rs 124 more on each monthly bill, while those consuming 150, 200, 250, 300 and 400 units will have to pay an average Rs 221, Rs 298, Rs 373, Rs 452 and Rs 616 respectively over their present bills,’’ said Shirish Deshpande of the Panchayat.
On Monday, MERC effected hike in electricity tariff for over 7 lakh residential consumers in the island city and over 19 lakh in suburban Mumbai by 9.5% and 7.5%, respectively.