Email
Print
ShareMumbai: Although energy minister Sunil Tatkare wants uniform power tariff for consumers from the metropolis, industry experts feel that it is a difficult proposition.
"Not only is it difficult, it is also not feasible as uniform tariff would mean profits for some and losses for the other," said an industry expert.
Officials from the state power department said since the source of energy procurement was different for different power utilities, the cost of power per unit also varied.
While the consumers from the island city receive power from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, suburbs are supplied power by Reliance Infrastructure (formerly known as Reliance Energy Limited).
For years together BEST has been receiving its supply from Tata Power Company, whereas RInfra gets one-third of its requirement from its own source, one-third from TPC and the remaining has to be sourced from other agencies.
"In such a situation if BEST is asked to levy RInfra's tariff, it would mean BEST will be able to make good profits. At the same time if RInfra is asked to levy BEST's tariff which is more likely to be lower (as the entire power is sourced from TPC) RInfra will have to bear losses," an official from the state utility said.
Also, the composition of consumers with both the utilities is different. BEST has 45% residential consumers whereas RInfra has 57% residential consumers. Residential consumers are subsidised by the high-end consumers like the industrial, commercial and residential consumers whose consumption is more than 300 units a month.
"This means that RInfra has a smaller consumer base to subsidise the residential consumers whereas BEST has over 55% consumers to subsidise its lower-end consumers. It will be difficult to make tariffs uniform even on this count," another industry expert said. Also, the Electricity Act envisages competition among utilities for better service which will get diluted in case tariffs are made uniform.
