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He says they should pay nothing till the city government of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit agrees to getting an audit of the three private power companies in charge of distributing electricity, to be done by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Till this is done, he says, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) should freeze all activity on raising power rates.
Kejriwal and Anil Sood, a member of the state advisory committee of DERC, have accused the latter body of never having verified the rate requirement claims of the discoms since 2004. Any increases or decreases sanctioned by it in these years have been illegitimate, said Sood today, for this reason.
Kejriwal said Delhi was about to get another big rise in retail power supply rates and this would mean an extra average monthly expenditure of Rs 5,000.
DERC Chairman P D Sudhakar denied that verification had not been done in the past years. “We have been determining tarriffs (rates) on the basis of checks,” he said. He also dismissed the allegation about the consultancy influencing any of DERC’s decisions. “They are no longer working with us. Besides, the consultant only assists in examining of petitions. We take decisions and are supported by our staff,” he told Business Standard.
