MARGAO: The first-ever meeting of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) in South Goa, on Wednesday witnessed angry outbursts from consumers over the Electricity Department’s proposal to increase the power tariff by 4.95%.
The Commission as well as the consumers slammed the electricity officials for their lethargic attitude towards the consumers. JERC chairman M K Goel, member Neerja Mathur, secretary Keerty Tiwari, chief electricity engineer Nilkanth Reddy and others were present. The Electricity Department submitted a proposal before the JERC to hike the tariff by 4.95% to fill the budget gap of Rs 79 crore.
The revenue gap of Rs 473 crore has been filled by the budget allocation of Rs 394 crore by the government of which Rs 79 crore remains as a budget gap.
However, the proposal to hike the power tariff did not go down well with the consumers, who asked the department to first plug the revenue losses and then increase electricity tariff.
Convenor of GoaCAN Roland Martins said, “There is no transparency in the department. The website mentioned on the advertisement of the electricity department is wrong and it is done deliberately.”
Martins alleged that the electricity department website is completely non-functional and has not been updated for years together.
Surprised by the allegation, the JERC chairman questioned chief electrical engineer and advised him to put the same in place as soon as possible. “No data to show how many actually pay commercial rates if they rent their second homes and that’s a big loss,” Martins said.
