PANJIM: A major industrial house in Verna was aware that they would have to cop up higher amounts consistently for four months. But it was certainly NOT prepared to part with two to three lakh rupees more. It is the extent of the power bill slap which left both domestic and industrial consumers fuming. This is just one of thousands of cases, especially in middle class households, whose budgets have gone for an absolute toss at this increase.
The Fuel Power Purchase and Cost Adjustment (FPPCA) charges that have been added to the bill, as domestic consumers and industries have had to shell out a much larger sum for the same amount of electricity on the existing tariff rates.
While residents across Goa are yet to recover from the shock of enhanced bills due to the FPPCA charges, industries have complained that they were shocked to see a huge increase in their monthly bills recently, in some cases it being double or triple the earlier average bill amount.
Some claimed that instead of getting monthly bills, they receive inflated bills of accumulated amounts at an interval of two-three months, which now have affected their budget, especially the industrial sector, which have had to face a huge burden.
FPPCA is the difference of per unit actual cost of power purchase and per unit approved cost of power purchase.
Charges will be applicable to all consumers except those under the agriculture category till July.
The blow is huge. The department confirms that bills for this 4th quarter of FY 2016-17 i.e from January-March-2017 are high when compared with balance 3 quarters of FY 2016-17. The difference to be recovered through the formula of fuel purchase has gone up from 40-47 paisa per unit to 148 paisa per unit. Hence the category wise levy ranges from 62 paisa per unit to 327 paisa per unit.
Speaking to Herald, an official from an industry in Verna said that they had to pay Rs 8,58,269 towards electricity charges for the month of April due to the increase in the FPPCA as compared to the previous month bill that was Rs 7,63,034.
“We had to pay an additional amount of Rs 95,235 which is a huge burden. The FPPCA charges for the month of March was Rs 51,244 but with the increase, the charges tripled to 1,78,384,” said the official
Likewise, several other consumers had similar complaints, many of them had even marched to the electricity office with the hope that their bills would be rectified, however, returned disappointed.
“I always used to get a bill in the range of Rs 700 to Rs 850 but suddenly due the FPPCA charges the bill amount has gone up. The consumers are facing the pinch because instead of getting monthly bills, we have received inflated bills of accumulated amounts at an interval of two-three months which has severely affected the budget,” said Nandesh Desai, a resident of Caranzalem.
Another resident of Taleigao, Reena D’Souza said, “Earlier, we used to receive monthly electricity bills of Rs 600-700, however, this time I was shocked to find a huge increase in the electricity bills.”
Speaking to Herald, GOACAN Coordinator, Roland Martins said, “The department needs to come up with a consumer friendly package to recover the money. It could have easily stretched the recovery period so that the consumers are not affected.”
