Former Union Minister and Local M.P. Pawan Kumar Bansal has written a strongly worded letter to the chairman Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (J.E.R.C.)in which he has condemned the proposed hike in electricity charge by the UT administration .

          In his representation to the JERC Bansal pointed the fact that the penalty of the inefficiency and failure to curtail wasteful expenditure and transmission and distribution on the part of electricity department cannot be imposed on the end customer.

          The easy route hiking the power tariff is not only wrongful but also will not be able to solve the problems from the grassroots.

          Inversely, it will complicate matter further and impose more burden on the people who are already reeling under record inflation, increased taxes, hiked rates of petroleum products etc.

          In his letter to the Chairman J.E.R.C. Bansal said "besides the tariff per se, the department resorts to levy of Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment (FPPCA) charges on the extant tariff from time to time. While FPPCA is supposed to represent the increase or decrease in the cost of purchase of power after the last change in the tariff, the department has started a practice of levying heavy FPPCA at free will. The levy of FPPCA can only be prospectively effected after the initial decision to levy this charge, but the Electricity Department is continuing with this practice of levying usurious charges even when it has over Rs. 121 crores as surplus with it on this account."

          Bansal reiterated that there is a basic flaw and illegality in levying FPPCA at different rates for different slabs as it is not a tariff which is fixed according to a fair policy but an additional charge to recompense the department for the actual payment made by it on account of an increase in the cost of purchase of power since the last fixation of the regular tariff and must cease after the subsequent revision in the tariff.

          In his letter he said that the supply of electricity by a State department is not a commercial activity for profit but an essential service to the people. At times the govt. may provide for a subsidy on the supply of electricity but profit making can never be its objective. Rather a State-run utility is answerable for working out the tariff without wasteful expenditure in its operations.

          Bansal demanded the JERC that the electricity department of UT Administration be barred from levying any additional FPPCA till the time the surplus of over Rs.121 crores is exhausted in payment of any additional cost to the suppliers in future and that the new tariff proposed be disallowed.