If you thought you were paying too heavy a surcharge for enjoying zero load-shedding (ZLS), you were right. MSEDCL had miscalculated the ZLS surcharge on the higher side and now refuses to pay back the excess amount collected from Nagpurians. The same injustice has been perpetrated on residents of other big cities. As if this were not enough, MSEDCL will continue to recover extra money from you until June end and perhaps until the state becomes completely power cut free.
R B Goenka of Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) told TOI that MSEDCL in its petition before Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) had stated that in the July-September 2010 quarter, money was to be refunded to consumers in ZLS areas as more amount was collected from these areas than was justified. The company pleaded this would impose additional burden on other consumers.
MSEDCL had initially calculated the ZLS surcharge for Nagpur as 51 paise per unit. VIA had submitted a petition in MERC a few months ago stating that it should be reduced to 30 paise. However, MERC disregarded its plea and extended the scheme till June 2011 with the surcharge remaining at 51 paise. MSEDCL's own calculations show that the surcharge was only 17 paise in July-September period.
After doing audit for December 2009 to March 2010 period, MSEDCL claimed that the surcharge had increased to 63 paise. However, after doing audit for April-June 2010 period it was again reduced to 51 paise. Goenka pointed out that when the surcharge went up MSEDCL had no qualms in collecting higher amount from consumers. However, when the time came to pay back, it flagrantly refused to do so.
MSEDCL is treating big cities as a milch cows. Completely changing its methodology to calculate ZLS surcharge, MSEDCL has proposed to use average billing rate (ABR) and distribution loss of the state instead of ABR of the city where ZLS is being implemented. As the state's ABR is lower than that of big cities and state's distribution loss figure is higher, it would unjusticably increase the surcharge.
Goenka further said that MSEDCL had not done regular audit of ZLS schemes in violation of MERC directives. The first ZLS scheme was from December 2009 to November 2009. MSEDCL filed a petition in November seeking an extension till March 2011. MERC had told it to submit audit reports pertaining to all quarters before March but it failed to do so. MERC extended the scheme till June 2011 end to avoid inconvenience to consumers.
MSEDCL erred in calculating the initial surcharge because it assumed very high rates for power to be purchased from exchanges. It had considered the average during the day at Rs 6.75 per unit while the average day rate in 2010 was only Rs 3.84 per unit. In spite of this experience, MSEDCL proposed the average day rate in the new petition at Rs 5.5 per unit.
R B Goenka of Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) told TOI that MSEDCL in its petition before Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) had stated that in the July-September 2010 quarter, money was to be refunded to consumers in ZLS areas as more amount was collected from these areas than was justified. The company pleaded this would impose additional burden on other consumers.
MSEDCL had initially calculated the ZLS surcharge for Nagpur as 51 paise per unit. VIA had submitted a petition in MERC a few months ago stating that it should be reduced to 30 paise. However, MERC disregarded its plea and extended the scheme till June 2011 with the surcharge remaining at 51 paise. MSEDCL's own calculations show that the surcharge was only 17 paise in July-September period.
After doing audit for December 2009 to March 2010 period, MSEDCL claimed that the surcharge had increased to 63 paise. However, after doing audit for April-June 2010 period it was again reduced to 51 paise. Goenka pointed out that when the surcharge went up MSEDCL had no qualms in collecting higher amount from consumers. However, when the time came to pay back, it flagrantly refused to do so.
MSEDCL is treating big cities as a milch cows. Completely changing its methodology to calculate ZLS surcharge, MSEDCL has proposed to use average billing rate (ABR) and distribution loss of the state instead of ABR of the city where ZLS is being implemented. As the state's ABR is lower than that of big cities and state's distribution loss figure is higher, it would unjusticably increase the surcharge.
Goenka further said that MSEDCL had not done regular audit of ZLS schemes in violation of MERC directives. The first ZLS scheme was from December 2009 to November 2009. MSEDCL filed a petition in November seeking an extension till March 2011. MERC had told it to submit audit reports pertaining to all quarters before March but it failed to do so. MERC extended the scheme till June 2011 end to avoid inconvenience to consumers.
MSEDCL erred in calculating the initial surcharge because it assumed very high rates for power to be purchased from exchanges. It had considered the average during the day at Rs 6.75 per unit while the average day rate in 2010 was only Rs 3.84 per unit. In spite of this experience, MSEDCL proposed the average day rate in the new petition at Rs 5.5 per unit.
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