Summary:
MUMBAI: With the state electricity supplier, MSEDCL , proposing to hike its power tariff, its power consumers plan to make arepresentation before the state power regulator, MERC, at a public hearing in Navi Mumbai on Thursday to demand that the tariff not be hiked further.MSEDCL supplies power to 2.5 crore consumers in the Kanjurmarg-Mulund area besides Navi Mumbai, Thane and the rest of the state. While consumer representatives said that the average tariff hike proposed is actually 22%, MSEDCL officials claimed that MSEDCL has proposed a hike of “just 2%” for industrial users to prevent industries from migrating.For high-tension commercial users like business houses, shops and malls, the hike in rates is proposed at just 1% and no further hike in rates for all consumers in 2019-20. This has come amid fears that consumers panned to migrate to rival power utility. On the other hand, the BEST undertaking has succeeded inadding 12,000 new electricity consumers in the past one year. Having a monopoly over its power supply jurisdiction, it has been hiking power tariff over the past couple of years and proposes to increase it by an average 15% once again.Several consumers from Thane and Navi Mumbai told TOI that they have been left with no choice but to pay the hefty bills, considering that there is no optional power supplier they can “migrate” to like is the case in the island city of Mumbai which has BEST and Tata Power as competitors.Ashok Pendse, who is in the know of electricity-related matters, told TOI that MSEDCL’s consumers were subjected to increasing tariff over the past few years due to the monopoly it holds over its area of supply.“The industrial tariff has also gone so high that industries in the state are reducing consumption or planning to migrate to other states,” he said, adding that he will raise the issue at the public hearing on Thursday..