No action on UPERC orders on matters of consumer interest

LUCKNOW: Though having a direct bearing on consumer interests, the orders issued by the state’s power regulator from time to time are gathering dust in files. The distribution companies (discoms), the executing bodies, are showing little urgency even as the Yogi Adityanath government is taking people-centric decisions one after another.

There can be no better example than its orders for a rebate to consumers who shift from unmetered to metered categories or the one for doing away with transaction charges on cashless online bill payment or another giving discount to consumers on timely bill payment.

On the one hand, the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) on April 26 announced a general amnesty scheme to regularise illegal power connections (katiyas) in a desperate bid to ensure that there was no unmetered supply in the state. On the other hand, it has been sitting for a year on the commission’s order aimed at encouraging people to go for metered supply and also one asking discoms to achieve 100% metering by March 2018.

The UP Electricity Regulatory Commission,P in its tariff order last year had, for example, provided for a flat 10% rebate in monthly bills of rural consumers who take the initiative to install an energy meter on their premises.

“In case, any rural consumer shifts from unmetered to metered category, he shall be entitled to rebate of 10% on the rate which shall be applicable from date of installation of the meter till the end of the financial year 2017-18,” the commission said in its order.

The UPPCL is yet to comply with the order even as the commission has written to it several times. In UP, around 70 lakh consumers use unmetered electricity, causing a massive revenue loss to the corporation/discoms and another 68 lakh use ‘katiya’ connections illegally.

But this is not the only order waiting for execution. Around a dozen such orders are facing the same fate. Orders/directives on discount to consumers to opt for pre-paid meters, trust billing , billable load demand, advance deposit for monthly bills, solar water heater rebate, rebate on payment of bills on or before due date, doing away with facilitation charges for online payment of bills, reducing line losses and 100 % metering—are all facing the same fate.