MERC rejects uniform power tariff for city………Chittaranjan Tembhekar
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has rejected the possibility of a uniform tariff in Mumbai and Maharashtra on the lines of Delhi and a few other states in the country.
This has come as a big blow for Reliance Infrastructure, which has been promoting the idea for Mumbai and also made a presentation to the government recently.
‘Power tariffs differ due to cost of supply’
In its report on Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s distribution business, forwarded to the state government, MERC has stated: “The tariffs for different consumer categories in areas under BEST, Tata, Reliance and MSEDCL (erstwhile MSEB) jurisdiction have always been different because of differences in the cost of supply, consumer base and consumption pattern and it is practically not possible to determine uniform retail supply tariff in the state across all licensees’ jurisdiction.’’
The MERC added that the cost of supply depended on various factors, like cost of power procured, distribution losses, operational and administrative expenses and capital expenditure (like depreciation and interest), which were bound to vary between different licensees.
Reliance Infra provides power to around 29 lakh consumers in suburban Mumbai (from Sion to Kanjurmarg in the central suburbs and from Mahim to Mira-Bhayander in the western suburbs).
BEST supplies power to close to 9.5 lakh consumers in the island city (from Colaba to Sion and Mahim) and Tata Power Company supplies power mostly to around 40,000 bulk consumers in the BEST and Reliance areas; it dential consumers across Mumbai. MSEDCL supplies power to Mulund, Bhandup and some parts of Kanjurmarg and the entire state and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region outside BMC limits; it MSEDCL has a consumer base of over 1.5 crore.
MERC chairman V P Raja told TOI that Mumbai had different utilities with a very complex pattern of power purchase, generation and distribution.
But the final decision would be the state government’s, he added.
THE RINFRA ROW
THE RINFRA ROW
* Any decision to allow Reliance to hike its power tariff in suburban Mumbai will have to be taken by the new government that will assume power in the state after the assembly elections slated for October this year
* MERC chairman V P Raja said the third-party investigations into the “inflated’’ tariff, audits and other issues about finances and revenue of Reliance Infrastructure would take a minimum of eight to 10 months
* The state has already stopped Reliance from effecting the new hike and asked it to continue with the old tariff till further orders