VIA praises MERC for ‘balanced’ power tariff order

  • | Saturday | 22nd September, 2018

Nagpur: Vidarbha Industries Association ( VIA ) has welcomed the power tariff order issued by Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission ( MERC ), terming it as ‘balanced’. Moreover, leading power factor will now also attract a penalty. The commission allowed only Rs20,651 crore, of which Rs12,382 crore is regulatory liability and only Rs8,268 crore will be recovered. Against MSEDCL’s demand for 40% tariff hike, the commission has only allowed 10%.MSEDCL had projected a deficiency of Rs34,646 crore for two years. “MSEDCL wanted to introduce KVAH billing instead of current kWh one.

Nagpur: Vidarbha Industries Association ( VIA ) has welcomed the power tariff order issued by Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission ( MERC ), terming it as ‘balanced’. Against MSEDCL’s demand for 40% tariff hike, the commission has only allowed 10%.MSEDCL had projected a deficiency of Rs34,646 crore for two years. The commission allowed only Rs20,651 crore, of which Rs12,382 crore is regulatory liability and only Rs8,268 crore will be recovered. The regulatory liability will be recovered in five years from 2020-21 to 2025-26.VIA president Atul Pande said that a large number of suggestions given by the association were accepted by the commission, which benefited the consumers. “MSEDCL wanted to introduce KVAH billing instead of current kWh one. The commission has rejected the proposal. This would have increased the tariff by 25%,” he added.“The commission did not change a provision of load factor incentive, but did not allow this incentive to consumers who exceed contract demand during any time of the day including night hours,” said Pande.“However, the decision to reduce power factor incentive will increase bills of industrial consumers. It has been reduced from 7% to 3.5%. Moreover, leading power factor will now also attract a penalty. Industrialists will now have to install automatic power factor correction panels,” he further said.On VIA’s suggestions, MERC did not allow bulk discount rebate and rebate for new industries, as this would have led to discrimination among consumers and small industries would have been adversely affected.Considering importance of accurate agricultural power consumption, the commission has also decided to undertake third party verification for agricultural sales of MSEDCL. This will be completed by March 2020.BOX0.25% discount on digital paymentsMERC has introduced a discount of 0.25% of the monthly bill (excluding taxes and duties) subject to a cap of Rs500 per month for low tension (LT) consumers for payment of electricity bills through various modes of digital payment, such as credit cards, debit cards, UPI, BHIM, internet banking, mobile banking, mobile wallets etc.

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

NYOOOZ FRIEND

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.


Stay updated with all the Latest Nagpur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.

Related Articles