Mseb, Aurangabad Civic Body In Payment Dispute

The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation are locked in a payments dispute. MSEB has claimed that the corporation owes it over Rs 120 crore.

Both parties have filed affidavits with the state power regulator Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) and the issue will come up for hearing on July 16.

At the heart of the dispute is the amount to be charged by MSEB to the corporation for the power supplied. MSEB says that the billing per month is Rs 1.70 crore. The corporation has disputed this and said it is prepared to pay only Rs 75 lakh per month.

A piqued MSEB had issued a public notice stating that it would suspend the power supply unless its April bill of about Rs 2 crore was cleared. This prompted the corporation to seek relief before the commission.

The corporation has stated in its affidavit that it was being billed solely on the basis of supply to urban consumers. It has contended that it undertakes work in rural areas also. For instance, it supplies water to rural areas which are about 25 km away from Aurangabad. Consequently, it contends, MSEB should charge tariff that is applicable to rural areas on a part of the power supplied.

The average cost of supply to high tension urban consumers is about Rs 3 per unit. In addition, the corporation has to cough up a demand charge of Rs 300 per kilo volt ampere per month.

On the other hand, the demand charge of supplying power to rural areas works out to only Rs 20 per horse power per month. The energy charge too amounts to only Rs 1 per unit.

It is on account of this wide disparity in the tariffs between urban and rural consumers that the corporation has claimed relief.

However, MSEB has stated in its affidavit that the state government should subsidise the corporation for the welfare activities it undertakes such as supplying water to rural areas.

Interestingly, MERC had stated in its tariff order on May 5, 2000, that some relief is to be given to remote, inaccessible and hilly areas, where water is to be supplied from a distance of more than 25 km.