CESC tariff not to come down: Goenka

There is little chance that the tariff charged by power major Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) to its consumers would come down, company Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said here today.
"Profit is capped for CESC," he said.
"Expenses are going up as coal cost and freight cost have gone up. To be precise our profit is capped. But still I will like to say that we (CESC) have the cheapest tariff in the country ... Ours is the best in terms of service and in terms of efficiency," Goenka told reporters here today.
There has been a 9.2 per cent hike in average tariff for CESC in 2014-15 from the average tariff (actually charged) for 2013-14, a CESC source said.

Meanwhile, in its bid to keep a check on tampering of electric meters, CESC has started installing automated meter reading or smart meters, Goenka said.
"Installation of such meters began three months ago. These smart meters are tamper-proof and there is no need to read them physically," he said adding that by end of this financial year around five lakh such meters would be installed for commercial and residential connections.

For easy bill payment CESC has begun putting up payment kiosks in line with ATMs.
"Already 11 ATMs have been installed and another 25 will be installed in next three months' time," Goenka said.

This apart, CESC has from this month has started issuing bills in Bengali and Hindi.