Chairman of Punjab's electricity regulatory body resigns

Chairman of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) D S Bains has resigned from the post, citing personal reasons.
"I have tendered my resignation (from the post of Chairman, PSERC) to Punjab Chief Secretary," he said today.
"I resigned because of personal reasons. My children are abroad and I wanted to spend more time with them," he added.
Bains, a former IAS officer, had taken over as the chairman of power regulator PSERC in February 2016 when SAD- BJP led government was in the power.
Asked if he was facing any difficulty after new government came to power, he replied in negative.

"There was no reason to worry. I did call on the chief minister, finance minister and power minister. There was not any sort of difficulty with the government," he asserted.

To a query, the former PSERC Chairman said he had not communicated with the government on power tariff rate.
Asked about new power tariff for 2017-18, Bains said it may take two months or more. "Tariff will come in due course. It may take two months or more".
He further said that there may be some changes in the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) in the wake of audit report of power utility Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

"An audit report of PSPCL has just come and we now will have to take objections from the public on it. It will take two months at least. Unless you true up, how would you know the figures including profit and loss account for 2016-17," he said.
"There will be a change in ARR," he said.
Notably, last month, Bains had said that the new multi year electricity tariff--first ever in Punjab would be announced in the month of April.
The multi-year tariff would be for 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and it would comprise electricity tariff for one year and indicative tariff for the next two years while determining the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) for power utilities -Punjab state power corporation and Punjab state transmission corporation.

Congress, which took over the reins of Punjab under the leadership of Amarinder Singh, had announced in its manifesto that it would ensure 24/7 power at affordable rates to all the sectors. It had also promised to freeze power tariff for the industry for five years.
Power utility PSPCL in its Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) had sought suitable hike in power tariff to cover to cover a gap of Rs 1.16 per unit.
PSPCL's average cost of supply was pegged at Rs 6.83 per unit while average revenue realised is projected at Rs 5.66 per unit for 2017-18.
PSPCL had projected revenue gap of Rs 5,576.21 crore with revenue requirement of Rs 33,336.34 crore for year 2017-18. The total revenue gap has been projected at Rs 11,575 crore.