Guwahati, March 27: Ignoring vociferous opposition by business groups and individuals, the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission (AERC) has approved a 13.46 per cent increase in power tariff to help the sick Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) mop up additional revenue to the tune of Rs 893 crore annually.
However, the hike is considerably less than the 50 per cent increase in revenue income sought by the ASEB to meet the gap between its estimated revenue requirement and revenue generated through the tariff structure that is in force at present. The board is likely to announce the new tariff rates in a day or two. These will be applicable from April 1.
AERC secretary Sabbir Hussain said the major changes include abolition of minimum charges for all categories of consumers and bifurcation of the consumption slab above 120 kilo watt hour per month in the domestic category into two slabs — 120 to 300 kilo watt hour and above 300 kilo watt hour.
Justifying the changes, Hussain said the concept of a minimum charge had been abolished because it was deemed to be a “disincentive for the consumers to conserve energy and the ASEB to improve supply”. The two new slabs were created because consumers whose consumption level is high have a better ability to pay for the power they use, he added.
Demand charges for the tea, coffee and rubber industries have been replaced by a fixed charge on contracted demand. Consumers can now declare two contracted demands for the in-season and off-season requirement of power and pay fixed charges on these.
The announcement of a new tariff structure follows public hearings in Guwahati and Jorhat on March 9 and 13. After scrutiny and analysis of the ASEB’s projections, the AERC has reduced the annual revenue requirement to Rs 893 crore from Rs 1128.29 crore.
The hike in tariff is part of a new power reform policy that aims to segregate the generation, transmission and distribution wings of the ASEB into corporate entities.
The Tarun Gogoi government tabled its “Power Policy Statement 2003” in the Assembly recently, citing the need to overhaul the power sector to make it efficient and provide quality service to its consumers. The Congress government views privatisation as a means to achieve the overall objective of providing quality service to consumers and not an end in itself.
The ASEB is facing the worst crisis since its inception, with losses during 2001-02 alone totalling Rs 631.98 crore. Transmission and distribution losses account for an estimated 44 per cent of this amount.
In the first phase of the reform process, as many as 14 distribution circles of the ASEB have been converted into “profit centres”, each under the control of a chief executive officer. Financial and administrative powers have been adequately delegated and accountability fixed for each unit of power distributed by these units.