<b>Amdavadis paying power bills through their nose

Amdavadis paying power bills through their nose Tuesday, July 3, 2001

By Praveena Sharma, Times of India News Service
AHMEDABAD: Electricity in Ahmedabad is fast becoming an expensive commodity. Though other cities in Gujarat have also seen some rise in power bills, the impact on consumers in Ahmedabad seems to be higher than in any other part of the state, leave alone other states where power is much cheaper.

A comparative study carried by the infrastructure consultancy firm, Nayan Parikh & Consultants, a year ago showed that Ahmedabad Electricity Company's charges per unit of electricity was higher than Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) and Surat Electricity Company (SEC), the other two entities that distribute power in the state. The reason for this is the difference in 'fuel adjustment costs' which are charged by the GEB, SEC and AEC.

A rough calculation done by some consumer organisations in the state shows that a consumer in Ahmedabad would be paying at least 25 per cent more than a consumer in Vadodara or Rajkot. But if a new, high-precision meter has been installed, the bills can go up by another 25 per cent.

AEC has installed more than three lakh new single-phase meters and 65,000 new poly-phase meters in the last three years. AEC officials say that rise in the income due to installation of new meters is negligible.

A random survey conducted by TOI shows that while a consumer with essential appliances (TV, refrigerator, computer and washing machine) in Ahmedabad pays an average of Rs 1,500 every two-month billing cycle while a consumer in Vadodara shells out around Rs 1,000.

Sonal Bakshi, who works for an NGO in Vadodara, gets a bill ranging between Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,500. She says this is on the higher side as she uses a electric water pump which is operated for about three to four hours in a day. Sunita Kaul, a resident of Ahmedabad who owns the same electrical appliances as Bakshi (minus water pump), was thrust a bill of Rs 1,900 for March-April. Surprised by the exorbitant billing she lodged a complaint with the AEC. She was told that her old meter was running fast and needed to be replaced. On installation of new meter, her bill jumped up to a whopping Rs 2,400.

AEC officials confess that the billing goes up after installation of new meters. "Our old meters had gradually started running slower. It had started running slower by 7 to 12 per cent, so we decided to replace them with meters, which do give a higher billing to the consumers," says AEC vice president (personnel and administration) Babubhai Patel.

The cost per unit, calculated by Nayan Parikh on the basis of his electricity bills, was Rs 6.89 per unit for March-April, which shot up to Rs 7.42 per unit in May-June. This rise is defended by the AEC officials, who say that the new electronic meters which register even the smallest of power loads are precision meters. To this, an electrical experts argue if that was the case then the increase in the new meter reading should be, at the most, by 10 units, but the actual increase after installation of new meters was of 50 to 100 units.

Consumers are also mystified with the new billing system. Kaul's bill factors a fuel surcharge, which is a whopping Rs 1,140 for a billing of Rs 2,400. "Since electricity companies have the liberty to fix their own fuel surcharge, many costs which cannot be factored in anywhere else gets loaded on to the fuel surcharge," says Parikh.

Patel says that such fuel cost adjustment is permissible. "We are doing what is permitted under the government rules to us as licensee," says Patel. The fuel cost charges, which was 12 paise per unit in the early eighties, have shot up to Rs 2.12 per unit. According to a Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) member Jaganath Sharma, this has had a major impact on the electricity tariff.

"The quality of the coal is of inferior standard. Instead of trying to recover losses due to this from Coal India Limited and Indian Railways, power utilities find it easier to pass on these burden to the consumers," says Sharma.

And the recent rise in bills is not the end of the consumer's woes. An AEC proposal for another tariff revision is lying with the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) and a decision is likely to be delivered shortly. But if this proposal is approved the burden on the consumers even more back-breaking.
News Source : Times Of India News Service [ Lightning News ]

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