look news india
The impact of the ongoing tension between Iran and Israel at the international level has now directly reached the homes of the common people. After the skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel, now electricity has also been hit by inflation. A very bad news has come to light for more than three crore electricity consumers of Uttar Pradesh. Complete preparations have been made to make electricity expensive in the state, which is sure to increase the burden on the pockets of the general public. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has taken a big and shocking decision of imposing 10 percent extra charge on electricity bills. The only relief is that these increased rates will not be permanent, but will be added to the electricity bill in the month of June. That is, in simple words, if your normal electricity bill used to be Rs 100, now you will have to pay Rs 110 for it.
Know why this 10% additional fuel surcharge is being imposed
This sudden decision of UP Power Corporation is going to have a significant impact on the monthly budget of crores of consumers of the state. Not only domestic consumers but also commercial and all other categories of consumers have been included in the scope of this increased charge. Electricity department officials argue that due to global conditions there has been an unexpected increase in the cost of electricity production. This ‘Fuel Surcharge’ is being implemented only to compensate for the additional cost incurred in power generation and power purchase from external sources, which will be recovered as extra charge in the electricity bills of June.
Now Power Corporation will not be able to fight cases against the public with public money.
Amidst this huge inflation, a very big and relief news has also come out in favor of the consumers. Now the Power Corporation will not be able to waste the people’s hard-earned money like water in court cases against the public. Till now the corporation used to show the huge expenses incurred in the lawsuits in its total losses and expenses, and then under the guise of this, it used to submit a proposal to the Electricity Regulatory Commission to increase the electricity rates. But now the system is going to change. The corporation will now have to bear the expenses of all future lawsuits from its own profits. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) is going to make concrete arrangements for this in its new tariff order.
Showed the loss to the public by spending Rs 46 crore in lawsuits, rates have not increased for 6 years
The surprising thing is that Power Corporation and Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) together have spent a total of Rs 46 crore so far only on court cases. In order to pass the burden of this huge amount on to the public, it was added to the accounts of the companies as ‘deficit’. Let us tell you that there has been no increase in the basic electricity rates in Uttar Pradesh for the last six years. At present, a case is going on in the court regarding surrender of license of Noida Power Company, in which both Power Corporation and NPCL are the plaintiffs. Apart from this, there are many such cases in which consumers have won the cases in the courts or forums, but the power companies are fighting cases against their rights in the higher courts.
21 crores spent on lawsuits, Regulatory Commission rejected the demand of power companies
If we look at the figures of the last one year, then Power Corporation alone has spent Rs 21 crore on lawsuits and NPCL has spent Rs 25 crore. This entire amount was taken as electricity bill from those consumers who pay their bills honestly. This time, when the new electricity rates were being discussed in the meeting, a strong objection was raised against showing the litigation expenses as a loss. It was clearly said in the review that the power companies fight cases against the public and declare losses to them and then bring proposals to make electricity expensive, which is completely wrong. According to sources, the Regulatory Commission has adopted a strict stance and made it clear that the demand for increasing electricity rates to meet the expenses of the litigation will not be accepted at any cost. Fighting the case is the corporation’s own decision, hence it should bear its expenses from its own internal resources only.
