Industry opposes proposed power tariff hike in UT

A proposed tariff hike filed by Union territory administration has drawn ire from industrialists, even as officials maintain that it is a hike in coal prices that has led to a revision in prices. The electricity department has proposed hike in power tariff by 50 per cent for the year 2012-13 owing to increase in coal price. Curr-ently, the domestic rates for electricity in Chandigarh is Rs 2.60 per unit (up to 150 units) and Rs 3.80 (above 150 units) while it is Rs 3.80 per unit for commercial users.

The average requirement of electricity in Chandigarh rem-ains around 220 mw while the peak requirement is 325 mw. The industries factions in Chandigarh including CII has termed as unreasonable, the tariff hike proposed under the aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) and tariff petition for FY 2012-13 filed by electricity department, UT Chandigarh. Vikram Hans, chairman, Chandigarh Cou-ncil of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said the proposed tariff hike was against the spirit of the Electricity Act 2003. “As per the JERC (Joint Electricity Regulatory Comm-ission) guidelines, the average tariff should have component of 80 per cent as average cost of purchase. In the case of Cha-ndigarh, the average cost of purchase is around Rs 3.32 per unit. Accordingly, the average tariff should be around Rs 4.15 against Rs 6.21 proposed by the electricity department, which is 50 per cent higher,” he explained.

Sameer Goel, vice chairman, CII Chandigarh Council said the electricity department, at the moment, calculates load on the connected load. “This does not give a clear picture of the actual load,” he said. “Rather, it should calculate the load on peak load, as done in Punjab.”

However the Union territory officials maintain that a 50 per cent hike in power tariff was necessitated, mainly because of an increase in coal prices. The rise in coal prices have led to a hike in power costs by the generating company. The electricity wing of the engineering department of the administration is concerned with transmission and distribution of electricity and no power generation.

The officials explain that the situation becomes even more difficult for them, since 85 per cent of expenditure for distribution companies was uncontrollable.