PANJIM: Taking by surprise the packed gathering at a public hearing hosted by Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) on the proposed hike in electricity tariff, Opposition leaders lead by Digambar Kamat entered the hall in a jiffy, presented a memorandum to JERC Chairman M K Goel and left.
While MLAs Vijai Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte and Jayesh Salgaonkar accompanied Kamat, the memorandum was signed by 10 Legislators.
The memorandum objected to the proposed hike in electricity tariff.
In the memorandum, the Opposition Legislators said, “The public notice in newspapers is very confusing. It also comments about the revenue gap of Rs 296.78 crore to be met through budgetary support by the Government of Goa. In view of the fact that budget for 2020-21 is yet to be presented, it is very surprising that the Electricity Department is aware of the budgetary provision even before the budget is presented on floor of the Assembly.”
“In previous years, there was no hike in tariff, but in 2018-19 it was 6.37 per cent and the proposed hike is set to be at 3.84 per cent. The revenue loss which is called a “gap” between income and expenditure is at Rs 372 crore; Rs 1968 crore of revenue is generated from the existing tariff. Goa’s total requirement is 650 MW of electricity, which includes solar power. Whatever we have tied up is sufficient and we have long term purchase agreement with various Central government power stations,” Raghuvir Keni, Chief Electrical Engineer told Herald. The long-term purchase agreement is for 25 years.
A consumer Rohan Pai Angle highlighted, at the meeting, the issue of seasonal consumers of the industry and mentioned that in the last public hearing it was raised but there was no response from the Electricity Department and thus demanded intervention of JERC in this matter.
He also mentioned about the open access scheme which has been notified by the Commission but it should be advantageous to the industry.
“The scheme mentions about the additional surcharge and cross-subsidy surcharge. There is a increase in tariff so in what way the open access scheme will help Goa? I need intervention of JERC on this,” added Angle.
The Superintendent Engineer for North Circle informed the audience and Angle that “we received an application to reduce his demand from 17 MW to 500 KVA. Since we have a long term agreement with our suppliers, it becomes very difficult to use seasonal variation in contract demand as 85 per cent of the cost we have to pay mandatorily which is a fixed cost for us.”
Chairman Goel did mention that he would look into the open access scheme issue and asked the department to tweak their long-term (30-35 years) contracts in view of the needs of the industry.
“We came up to reduce the burden of the industry during the non-operating period. More and more industries are going to come with this issue soon so I expect the department to tweak their long-term contract. Other states are giving seasonal tariff and we have to compete in the global market.”
Mukul Raj mentioned that before going for a tariff hike, the department should try to recover outstanding dues which will reduce the gap and ultimately the consumers will benefit.
“Today the CCP of Panjim, owes the department over Rs 5 crore. No attempts have been made by the department to recover that money. Also the assets of the department are being used by private operators to run their business without any fees,” Mukul Raj added.
Lona Fernandes raised issues with hike in tariff and mentioned that there is a lot of confusion.
“The billing approach is misleading as I use about 600 units and if it goes up my bill goes up by 25 per cent. The department should be transparent and there should not be back door entry to raise the price. We have a huge middle class in Goa and they are all affected by it.”
The Goa Chambers of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) suggested that Electricity Department may be directed to engage with Goa Institute of Management for implementing a mechanism to compute reliability indices and make it transparent.
“As positive gap can be achieved for FY 2020-21, by improving efficiency in power purchases, reduction in T&D losses and increase in revenue by improving reliability, GCCI said in memorandum, adding that the proposal to hike tariff be dropped.”
