State energy minister Chandrashekhar Bavankule has once again started a debate over having an uniform power tariff in the city after he instructed the Tata, Reliance and the BEST to take measures accordingly on Thursday. However, experts in the power sector said that the idea should be feasible for companies, which are supplying power to the city.
In a meeting headed by Mr Bavankule, the minister told the officials of the companies to keep power tariff uniform for 0 to 500 units, mostly the residential consumers. The minister has also called a review meeting on February 5 with the companies’ officials to check reply from the suppliers, an official from the energy department said. Tata, Reliance and the BEST are the main power suppliers to the city.
The uniform power tariff for the city is another effort to satisfy consumers, the official in the department said. However, experts termed the move by the government as ‘vote bank’ politics and said the companies should take a call on the issue. “The companies should first show willingness to have equal tariff. They should make a formal proposal before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC). It is also necessary to check if providing power at uniform tariff is feasible for them considering different power purchase cost by the companies,” Ashok Pendse, consumer representative on the MERC said.
There was no official version from the companies' officials on the issue.
In June 2015, the MERC had allowed power hike of 3.9 per cent for Tata and 5.2 per cent for Reliance.
