KOCHI: A recent announcement by Minister for Electricity K Krishnankutty suggesting a tariff hike of Rs 1 per unit had sparked discussions about the delay in collecting due bills. M K Haridas, a Kochi-based RTI activist said that the KSEB has pending bills of Rs 3,159.16 crore to be collected from five sets of consumers. He added that if at least one-fourth of the amount is collected, KSEB can settle the debts and avoid increasing the tariff.
“Around Rs 496.64 crore is yet to be collected from domestic consumers, Rs 374.90 from high-extension consumers, Rs 1,121.23 crore from commercial consumers, Rs 994.81 from the public sector establishments and Rs 171.5 crore from the other government establishments. KSEB is citing economic crisis as the reason for increasing the tariff. But, it has an easier solution — collecting the due bills,” he said. Until January, the board incurred an extra debt of Rs 9,056.71.
A private satellite channel had given Rs 101.91 crore for electric posts. This is excluding the payment by regional channels in every district. According to the activist, the board cited delay in getting the due bills/payment as another reason for the economic crisis.
KSEB submitted the tariff petition to the state electricity regulatory commission in the first week of February. The proposed hike is expected to cause a 20 per cent increase in the bi-monthly power bill of domestic consumers.