MUMBAI
The fund is meant to cover the BEST's assets from risks such as riots, earthquakes or other circumstances beyond their control
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) came down heavily on Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) for utilising the Property Insurance Fund for its capital expenditure and day-to-day running of the Transport wing. The fund is meant to cover the BEST's assets from risks such as riots, earthquakes or other circumstances beyond their control. However, the BEST now wants the public to pay an amount of Rs 48 crore which was utilised through this fund.
"The Commission is surprised that BEST now claims that the fund is being used for funding the capital expenditure of its Transport Division that was never brought out in its tariff petition. BEST cannot overturn its earlier factual submissions in this manner at its convenience," stated one of the remarks of the quasi judicial body.
The BEST had demanded a mid-term review of various costs borne by them which run into few crore rupees that they wanted to recover from their 10 lakh electricity consumers. One of the factors included the increase in employee cost which has been one of the major reasons in recent times for unrest and strikes within the Undertaking.
On January 12, the MERC rejected most of the petitions of the total nine made by the BEST. One of the important ones being the increase in their operations and maintenance costs mainly due to increasing cost of salaries, dearness allowances and house rent allowances paid to their employees. According to the proposal sent to the MERC, the BEST has seen a massive rise in employee expenses from Rs 199 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 475 crore in 2017-18 that is expected to touch Rs 627 crore in 2019-20.
BEST in its reply to the MERC has stated that they are trying to curtail O&M expenses by reducing manpower but there has been substantial increase in dearness allowance and energy sales are reducing.
2010-11 Rs 199.32
2012-13 Rs 252.63
2014-15 Rs 347.33
2016-17 Rs 413.53
2018-19 Rs 545.88
2019-20 Rs 627.19
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