Consumers oppose MESCOM’s move to hike power tariff
Mangaluru: Farmers, industry representatives and other consumers at a public hearing by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) here on Monday, opposed Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited’s (MESCOM) proposal to hike the power tariff by an average of 59 paise per unit.
KERC member M.D. Ravi conducted the hearing at MESCOM’s corporate office. KERC Chairman P. Ravikumar took part in the hearing virtually.
Satyanarayana Udupa from the Bharatiya Kisan Sangha, Udupi, said the MESCOM has brought down the distribution loss by 8.4% and sold 5,598.36 MU of power to earn Rs 4,592.9 crore in 2022-23. When it was earning good revenue, there was no need for the company to increase the tariff.
Mr Udupa said MESCOM should take steps to recover dues from the State government, including Rs 220 crore due from Mysuru Paper Mills, Bhadravathi. Expressing his concern over tardy progress in 100% metering of irrigation pump sets, the farmer leader said metering was needed to know the extent of power consumed by these pump sets. Low tension lines should be maintained properly, he said and sought more meetings of MESCOM with LT consumers.
K.N. Venkatagiri Rao from Sagar Balakedaarara Vedike said if the MESCOM gets pending the power subsidy of Rs 556 crore from the State government, there will not be any need for MESCOM to raise the tariff and generate Rs 351.96 crore to meet the revenue shortfall.
Activists Hanumanth Kamath and G.K. Bhat said the removal by KERC of the tariff slab beyond the consumption of 100 units is hurting consumers as consumers have to pay about ₹400 for the consumption of a unit above 100. They asked KERC to restore the slab power tariff system.
Opposing the tariff revision, Ananthesh Prabhu, the president of KCCI, said small-scale industries are already reeling on account of the global recession. He sought a reduction of tariff by Rs 2 per unit to support MSME. While seeking discontinuation of collecting fixed charges every month, Mr Prabhu said all types of penalties for excess usage of power load and power consumption should be done away with.
Rajendra Suvarna from Ice Plant Owners’ Association said an increase of five paise per unit of power will be hard for ice plant operators to cope with.
