BHUBANESWAR: AMID Opposition demand for rollback of power tariff hike, the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) finds its tariff determination for the financial year 2021-22 challenged on the basis that it is full of mistakes.
An analysis of the tariff orders passed by the Commission for the current fiscal showed that the average tariff is 19.49 paise less than the average cost of supply (ACoS).
Further, the regulator has allowed surplus revenue of Rs 77.33 crore to the four distribution companies when they should have deficit revenue.
The ACoS has increased by 4.53 per cent (pc) but the hike in the average tariff is 7.57 pc. This means the consumers are charged more when the ACoS is less compared to last year’s price, goes the allegation.
Dubbing this as a conspiracy against the power consumers of the State, petitioner Anand Mohapatra who has sought a review of the three tariff orders of Gridco, OPTCL and distribution companies (discoms) said the OERC has been doing this mistake for the last 10 years and penalising the consumers for the inefficiency of discoms.
OERC has calculated the average cost of supply (cross subsidised tariff) for the EHT, HT and LT at 548.5 paise per unit while the average tariff comes to 528.91 paise per unit.
Objecting to this unrealistic tariff calculation, the petitioner said that neither the Electricity Act, 2003 nor the National Tariff Policy or the regulations made there under empowered the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to leave a revenue gap while determining the tariff.
‘Gaping holes’ in power tariff determination
The gap may arise during the truing up exercise and passed on to the next annual revenue requirement (ARR) and traffic proceedings by the Commission, he argued.
If the non-tariff income of the discoms is deducted from the approved revenue and the Rs 77.33 crore revenue gap is adjusted, the actual tariff will reduce by 3.52 paise per unit, the petitioner in his fresh affidavit to OERC said.
The regulatory commission has approved a sale of 21,950.22 million units of power to the discoms - TPCODL, TPNODL, PTWODL and TPSODL - for the current fiscal with a revenue income of Rs 11,609.17 crore.The Commission on Tuesday fixed the next date of hearing of application of tariff revision to August 3.