Tariff row deepens, govt takes on DERC
The Delhi government and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission continue to be at loggerhead over the issue of the new power tariff order. The Delhi government in an apparent bid to strengthen the demands of the private power distribution companies (discoms) on Wednesday listed several reasons in support of power tariff hike, which included uninterrupted power supply during this year’s Commonwealth Games.
In reply to a memorandum of the Delhi BJP on the power tariff issue to the chief minister Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi government on Wednesday issued a detailed media statement listing various reasons for the DERC to examine before announcing the new tariff order. The city government in the statement has even charged the DERC for creating bottlenecks in ensuring uninterrupted power supply in the city by rejecting to look into the grievances of the discoms.
The Delhi government, while countering the claims of the DERC that the new tariff order need to be announced immediately, has stated that the mandatory 120 days for announcing the new tariff order has not been adhered to by the power regulator even earlier. The government has been maintaining that the new tariff order could be delayed, so that the demands of the discoms could be thoroughly examined.
The stand off between the Delhi government and DERC began on May 4, after the government, exercising a special power, forced the regulator not to announce the new annual tariff order. However, the DERC, after receiving the government directive, had indicated that it had planned to cut down the tariff by 20 to 25 per cent as discoms would have a surplus of around Rs 4,000 crores if the existing tariff was not tinkered with.
The government, while justifying its stand on the issue, stated that compared to other cities power tariff in the city is “reasonable” and the DERC needs to take into account uncontrollable costs of the discoms like costs on account of inflation, taxes and cess before finalising a new tariff order for the year 2010-11.
“Reservation on part of discoms to arrange additional power at high purchase power cost from short term bilateral market owing to regulatory uncertainty would have proved an obstacle in organising the Commonwealth Games in an efficient manner,” the government maintained in its statement.
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