DERC gets an earful in its annual public meeting
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Wednesday held a public hearing on power tariff increase petitions filed by state distribution companies. The proposal for a hike was vehemently opposed by Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) and political parties.
There has been no rise in power tariffs in Delhi in the last two years mainly because keeping the power rates low was a key agenda of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which is providing ₹1,720 crore in power subsidy for the current financial year.
July 2014 was the last time that tariff was revised and the rates were increased by 5%. Since then, consumers pay ₹4 per unit for consumption of power up to 200 units, ₹5.80-₹5.90 per unit for 200-400 units and ₹7.30 per unit for 400 units or higher.
The meeting on Wednesday started at 9 a.m. and was attended by over 50 public representatives. The ‘Draft Business Plan Regulations, 2017, and tariff petitions’ was presented, which marks an important step in the tariff revision process, which started last month.
The final call on fare revision will be taken after the DERC goes through the suggestions of the public.
President of the east Delhi RWA, B. S. Vohra said that instead of improving services, the discoms were in a rush to increase tariffs by displaying heavy losses in their books.
“Data shows that the growth rate of the consumers of the three discoms is around 5% to 6% per annum. Even if the peak demand is up by just 2%, there are outages across Delhi. Is this the business plan they have for the consumers?” he said.
‘It is a joke’
Saurabh Gandhi, general secretary of the United Residents of Delhi — a collective of RWAs — said that they were disappointed by the outcome of the public hearing due to the sheer apathy of the DERC towards the consumers.
“They strip people of the last penny but do not improve services. The meeting has become a joke,” he said.
Terming it a farce, the Delhi unit of the BJP boycotted the meeting while alleging irregularities by the AAP government. “Today’s hearing is a farce. It’s a big deception. There is concrete evidence of connivance of the Arvind Kejriwal government in the three power discoms of Delhi,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said in a statement.
with thanks : The Hindu : LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment