The hike in power tariff owing to Fuel Adjustment Charges (FAC) introduced by Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) has evoked a sharp response from the Federation of Organisations and Associations of Mysuru (FOAM) representing various businesses and traders groups in the city.
Addressing a press meet in the city on Tuesday, FOAM office-bearers said that the hike in tariff coupled with recovery of arrears was a steep burden on them and the government cannot justify it on the grounds that FAC had not been revised for years. They said any increase in FAC has to be in a graded manner and they cannot be faulted if the authorities had not revised it for years.
B.S. Prashanth, president of FOAM, said the fixed charges used to be 85% of the Installed Capacity and this has been hiked to 99% and the rate per unit has increased from 53 paisa per unit to ₹2.42 per unit while many intermediary slabs have been removed or merged adding to the burden of the consumers.
He said as a result of the revision of electricity tariff, the bill has doubled in many cases while in case of commercial establishments it more than 50% higher than normal and was a burden as the bill runs into thousands of rupees.
The FOAM members said such a steep hike not only adds to the financial burden of the consumers but throws the financial planning of business establishments into disarray. It was only last month that the CESC had revised the tariff and to resort to the same measure once again to recover arrears was a reprehensible move, the stakeholders lamented.
Cascading consequences
Mr. Prashanth, vice president C. Narayana Gowda, and others said the hike in power tariff does not merely impact businesses and trades alone but its cascading impact will be on the general public as the cost of manufacturing, service fees, etc., will be correspondingly hiked and the burden will be passed on to the commoners.
The worst-affected will the SSIs and MSMEs as they are tottering on the brink of closure due to various issues and the hike in power tariff has only compounded their grievances. If the MSMEs shut shop, it will throw thousands of workers out of jobs and add to unemployment problems.
The FOAM members also questioned the need to impose fixed charges and other slabs, which, they claimed, was not levied in other States.
Though Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Authority (KERC) has approved the hike, it is not independent of the government and hence the latter has to answer, according to FOAM which sought that the hike be rescinded.
