Petition against Odisha discoms for flouting HC order on tariff

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 12:

Power consumer forums have filed a petition before the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) on Wednesday alleging that the power distribution companies had contravened the High Court directive.

Keonjhar Navanirman Parishad Secretary and lawyer Dilip Kumar Mohapatra, Electricity Consumers’ Association of Odisha and State Electricity Consumers’ Association opposed the proposed power tariff hike for 2015-16 by discoms—CESU, NESCO, WESCO and SOUTHCO.

The petitioners alleged that the proposed power tariff hike is in contravention of the law as the discoms have not complied with the directives of Odisha High Court and OERC.

As per rules, the book of accounts of the discoms is supposed to be audited before the power tariff hike. However, the accounts for 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial year have not yet been audited and thus do not reflect the financial health of the companies, the petitioner alleged.

The discoms have not met the terms–capacity expansion, minimising transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, providing quality services to its consumers—set by OERC from financial year 2008-09 to 20014-15. Besides, they have not furnished the details of the extent of gap between revenue collection and bill payables in the last five years. In addition to this, they have not substantiated the reason for proposed power tariff hike, they pointed out.

Similarly, as the companies have not taken steps towards minimising various losses and illegally implemented BOOT model, their proposal for power tariff hike should be rejected, the petitioner pleaded.