The State, that is facing cumulative losses that could go up to Rs 1,367 crore by the end of the financial year 2018-19, is considering hiking the power tariff in the State over a period of three years to offset this loss.
The first proposed hike would be in the financial years 2016-17 and would amount to a 14 per cent increase in the power tariff, the next hike of 13 per cent would come in 2017-18 and the third hike of 11 per cent would come the following financial year in 2018-19. Given that the government has already increased the power tariff this year, leading to much grumbling and protests, this would lead to four tariff hikes in as many years. The government had defended that hike and claimed that tariff is lowest in Goa compared to other States. It didn’t, however, state how the transmission compares with other States.
If the government does go ahead with this plan, and in all likelihood will do so, it can be assured of one thing: that the consumers are not going to be happy to learn that they have to pay more for the electricity they consume. The electricity that reaches the end user is neither of a high quality, nor of a steady voltage and is also not uninterrupted. Whether you live in the State’s urban areas or the rural areas, the power supply is ridden with fluctuations, outages and cuts leading to frustration and malfunctioning of electric and electronic gadgets. There is not a single day when there is no power outage in the urban areas and in the rural areas it can get much worse, with power cuts that can last
several hours.
To get an idea of just how poor is the quality of the power supplied, one needs to look at no further back than the last few days. On Wednesday Panjim faced outages as the power station at Altinho suffered a breakdown, while neighbouring Merces went without power for quite a few hours as the feeder had tripped and the department’s personnel took time finding the fault before they could rectify it. Just a week earlier Tiswadi taluka went powerless for seven hours due to a sudden breakdown at the Tivim sub-station. On Thursday, across Salcete people were left without power and missed watching FC Goa down Kerala Blasters by two goals to one in a home match. Given this situation, does the government expect the people to readily pay more for the power they consume?
What the government needs to do immediately is to tighten the functioning of the department, improve efficiency, raise quality of the power transmitted and ensure that there are no billing problems. Considering increasing tariff without a corresponding improvement in the quality of the service provided defies common sense. Telling consumers that quality will improve later, but pay more now is not an acceptable business model. Electricity today is not a luxury but a necessity and the government must appreciate that the power it supplies is being paid for by the people and that it therefore has to improve its distribution and supply system
The State plans to undertake projects in the power sector that will be worth approximately Rs 2300 crore that will lead to an improvement in the network and augment the transmission and distribution system. But, that’s going to take time. In the meantime there are also plans to connect all houses in Goa with electricity by 2019. The government should consider first beginning these projects, let the consumers see and feel the difference in the quality of the power they receive and only then consider increasing the tariff.
