PANAJI
Jyoti Prasad, member (law) of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) who presided over the public hearing on the proposal to hike power tariffs in Goa from the start of the upcoming financial year said the Commission will try to balance the interests of all stakeholders when it eventually rules on the proposal.
“We have heard and noted all suggestions. We are going to consider them and balance stakeholders’ interest while fixing the gap,” Prasad said.
She also said that the Commission has documented every objection and proposal filed before it either online or at Wednesday’s public hearing and has given the Electricity Department two weeks to file its replies to each of them.
The ruling of the JERC will come only after that, she added.
Meanwhile, the Opposition on Wednesday slammed the Goa Electricity Department for proposing to hike power tariff from the next financial year beginning from April 1 and objected to the tariff proposal at the public hearing conducted by the JERC.
Only one member of the JERC, Jyoti Prasad, presided over the public hearing at which apart from the Opposition parties several stakeholders, including individual consumers, industry representatives and political parties argued against the power tariff hike citing poor accounting by the department and inadequate energy audit measures.
The Congress led by Opposition Leader, Yuri Alemao, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) through its Benaulim legislator, Venzy Viegas and Goa Forward Party’s (GFP) general secretary Durgadas Kamat made their presence felt at the nearly one-and-half hour long public hearing.
All three parties made a strong case against the tariff hike, arguing it is wrong to tax the citizen for the inadequacies and inefficiency of the Goa Electricity Department.
Chief Electrical Engineer, Stephen Fernandes, went through the motions of presenting the proposal which included the annual performance report (APR) of the current year.
According to Fernandes’ presentation before the JERC at the public hearing on Wednesday, even after the additional Rs 130-odd crore expected to be mopped up due to the tariff hike, the GED will still have a revenue gap of Rs 340-odd crore which is being proposed to be filled by the Goa government by providing for it with budgetary support.
In his brief interjection, Alemao slammed the GED’s proposal for the hike accusing it of inefficiency.
“It is not at all right to burden consumers with a six percent power tariff hike for the inefficiency of the government,” Alemao said, even as he and the GPCC chief Amit Patkar submitted a written objection urging the JERC to reject the hike.
Alemao also urged the JERC to direct the Goa Electricity Department to make public proforma account and its demand-and-collection balance sheet statement.
“I have already written to Chief Electrical Engineer seeking details of power losses in the State and action initiated by the Government to control power thefts, etc. I will file my written objections once I receive the data,” Alemao added.
AAP’s Viegas, meanwhile, noted that the public response to the hearing was poor and objected to the hurried manner in which the ‘public hearing’ was held on a working day, during working hours and with short notice.
“The JERC should consider holding another day of hearing on a weekend so that the common man can participate and place before you their views and objections to this proposal,” Viegas said.
Viegas too object to the hike in tariffs, especially for the domestic consumer category at a time when the average citizen is still struggling to cope with pandemic-spurred high job losses, inflation and prices of food and commodities.
He also censured the GED for poor accounting and financial reporting.
“Unless every rupee spent, whether in capital expenditure or otherwise, is put through a double-entry accounting process, this department has no moral authority to propose a tariff hike for any category of consumers,” Viegas said in his remarks before the JERC.
Viegas also slammed the GED for failing to include any investment proposal for renewable sources of energy, especially solar power, arguing that it will be a win-win for the government as well as consumers.
Presenting his objections and proposals in writing to the JERC, Viegas demanded that the GED should include a proposal to make one village from each constituency (40) villages 100 per-cent solar energy driven in the upcoming financial year plan itself.
Kamat of GFP said even the NITI Aayog had in November last year cautioned the Goa government over its “high” tariffs.
“In a document presented to the CM, the Aayog also recommended a reduction of the T&D losses, which it said was high. Does the Goa government not agree with these findings of the NITI Aayog,” he asked.
He said, the language in the petition makes it evident that the Goa Electricity Department is proposing a hike and the JERC is only approving it like in the past.
Currently, the tariff for the first slab of domestic consumers, that is those who consume less than 100 units per billing cycle, is Rs 1.60 per kWh and the proposed tariff is Rs 1.69/kWh.
It is also proposed to be hiked for all other slabs and category of consumers and in percentage terms the average hike proposed is 6%.
