Appellate tribunal's decisions on power questioned

A Pune-based think tank Prayas which deals with energy-related issues has questioned the Union Power Ministry dilly-dally over abrogating the decisions of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) which curtails the powers of the state power regulators like Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC).

Elaborating on Prayas's reservations, Shantanu Dixit of Prayas said, "APTEL reversed the order of MERC which makes it mandatory for distribution companies like MSEDCL and REL to give correct bills to consumer and not the average bills because meters are faulty or not working."

The APTEL order says, this is a dispute between the consumer and company which is supplying power, so if the consumer is aggrieved by the company's actions then he or she should go to the consumer redressal fora. This leaves no room for class action against discoms, and each consumer has to fight his or her own battle against discoms."

In another order, APTEL curtailed the rights of the state power regulator to approve capital expenditure of licensee (generation, transmission and distribution companies). The order says, the state power regulator can consider allowing or not allowing the capital expenditure of licensee only at the time of deciding tariffs for licensee.

This decision takes away the rights of state power regulator to examine if such a capital expenditure is really needed and if needed to what extent.

Giving the state power regulator the right to scrutinise the expenditure only post-facto is not possible as in the power sector capital expenditure runs into hundreds or thousands of crores, Dixit claimed.

While on the one hand, the power ministry is not showing any interest in reverting ATEL's decision, on the other hand it is trying to hurry through anti-consumer amendments to Central Electricity Act of 2003, in present budget session of the parliament, Dixit charged.

Under these amendments, for the smallest of offenses, distribution companies' (discoms) officials have been given power to put consumers behind bars.

For instance, if a consumer runs a tiny business from his house and paying bills as per residential rates then he can be put behind bars.

This will lead to harassment and blackmailing of consumers at the hands of discom officials. And under-privileged sections of society who carry on tiny businesses from home will be the worst hit if this amendment comes into force, he observed.