Plea to hold tariff hike

The industrialists in Mysore has urged the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) not to concede to the request of the Chamundeswari Electricity Supply Company (CESC) to hike power tariff by 75 paise a unit.

Any hike in the tariff at this juncture would put industry in Mysore into further hardship as they are already burdened by many issues, they told the KERC when it heard objections to the CESC proposal to raise power tariff in Mysore.

In all 19 individuals and seven organisations had filed objections to the CESC proposal.

KERC Chairman M R Sreenivasa Murthy and its two members Viswanath Hiremath and K Srinivasa Rao heard the consumers’ objections making strong opposition to any revision.

Arguing against CESC’s multi-year tariff revision, KIADB Industrial Area Manufacturers’ Association General Secretary K Ravindra Prabhu rejected the claim of losses saying its losses were owing to gross mismanagement on all fronts. CESC had projected a huge CAPEX of Rs438 crore for 2011 and Rs485 crore for 2012 which are not attainable owing to its past performance.

CESC had indiscriminately projected power purchase at an exorbitantly high rate of Rs5.59 a unit, amounting to Rs95.6 crore from independent non-conventional energy producers. CESC was losing 21 transformers every day suffering a loss of Rs15 lakh each day, he said.

Prabhu also brought to the notice of KERC irregularities in the purchase of transformers resulting in a loss of Rs5.26 crore.

Mysore Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Raghavendra said erratic power supply had made the industry suffer and CESC had failed to solve the problem. This had majorly affected production in the industrial units in Mysore.

At the outset, CESC Managing Director M Govindaiah placed its proposal seeking a revision in the power tariff and reasons for the same. The power-purchase cost had doubled with the operation and maintenance expenses, compared to the increased demand which was one of the reasons for the CESC to go in for a power tariff hike, he said.