KSEB proposals could have caused tariff shock

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Had the original KSEB petition for imposing power restrictions on domestic consumers been allowed, the common man’s electricity bill would have shot up by 40 per cent to as much as 97 per cent, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission has found.The Commission, in its orders on power restrictions for LT consumers issued on Thursday, blasted the KSEB for not properly ‘’analysing the impact on the consumers’’ before submitting its proposals.The Commission also pointed out that the implementation of KSEB recommendations would have led to ‘’tariff shock.’’ The KSEB had proposed to collect Rs 10 per additional unit for consumption over and above 150 units a month (300 units in the bi-monthly billing cycle). As per this, a consumer whose electricity bill at normal tariff would have been `799 for consuming 350 units in two months would have had to pay `1119, an increase of 40 per cent. In the same vein, by consuming 600 units in two months, a consumer would have been slapped with a bill for Rs 3619 (Rs 1841 at normal tariff), a hike of 97 per cent.The Commission in its orders detailed the impact of the KSEB proposals on consumers as the KSEB had failed to do so in its  petition. Although the KSEB had submitted proposals after being asked to do so by the Commission, it had attempted at ‘’mere compliance with the directions’’ without properly analysing the impact on the consumers.‘’The Commission has allowed the power restrictions as a temporary measure to tide over the financial difficulties of the board and to provide a signal for consumers for reducing the consumption in view of increasing cost of energy.This in any way cannot be employed as a measure for indirectly hiking the tariff resulting in steep increase in the power bills of consumers,’’ the commission said in its order.