Consumer body flays power hike proposal

LUCKNOW: The tariff hike proposal of the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), if accepted without any revision, may generate additional revenue of over ₹11,000 crore during the current financial year.

Of it, over ₹9,000 crore will come from domestic consumers alone.

Dubbing the proposed hike as power shock and not a hike, the UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad on Wednesday filed a petition in the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) to rescind the tariff hike proposal immediately.

The UPPCL in its proposal on Tuesday sought a tariff hike up to 150%-350% in respect of rural domestic metered and unmetered consumers while proposal around 23% average increase for all categories.

“Even the Supreme Court has given a ruling in one case that no power utility can give tariff shock to one particular category of consumers,” parishad president, Awadhesh Kumar Verma said in his petition.

He also argued that the power tariff in villages could not be brought to the level of cities because urban and rural domestic consumers have different paying capacities and facilities.

Verma claimed the UPPCL had also violated its commitment given to the Centre while signing the UDAY agreement. “The UPPCL had said in the agreement that it will propose 6.95% tariff hike during 2017-18 but it has now proposed 22.66% hike,” he said.

He said he had begun meeting leaders of various political parties including the BJP to persuade them to oppose the tariff hike proposal.

WILL LEAD TO PRICE RISE, SAYS RLD

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has flayed the unprecedented tariff hike proposed by the UPPCL for the rural domestic consumers and farmers and demanded the same be rolled back immediately.

In a statement, RLD general secretary, Anil Dubey on Wednesday said the proposal if not rejected or amended suitably would put a huge financial burden on power consumers both in villages and cities and this he added, would further give a fillip to the prevailing price rise .

He suggested the UPPCL exercised other options like controlling power theft, increasing collection efficiency etc to plug losses and enhance its revenue. “Increasing tariff every year to earn additional revenue is not the right solution,” he said.