UP: Consumer body seeks CM Yogi’s intervention in UPPCL’s bid to hike power tariff
Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma on Sunday said the UPPCL had again mooted the proposal for changes in the tariff slabs despite the fact that UPERC rejected the proposal twice in the past.
UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, a power consumers’ body, has sought chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s intervention in UP Power Corporation Ltd’s (UPPCL) alleged plan to increase the electricity tariff indirectly by making changes in the existing slabs.
As the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) begins public hearings from June 21 to know stakeholders’ views before announcing the new power tariff order for 2022-23, the UPPCL is believed to have renewed the bid to get the tariff structure changed in such a way so that its overall revenue collection increases, though it has not proposed any formal tariff hike.
Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma on Sunday said the UPPCL had again mooted the proposal for changes in the tariff slabs despite the fact that UPERC rejected the proposal twice in the past.
He said changes in the tariff slabs as proposed by the UPPCL would automatically increase the price of electricity for most of the consumers. “We appeal to the chief minister to intervene into the matter in the same manner in which he intervened when the Centre pressured states’ power generating companies to buy imported coal,” he said.
Verma said that by proposing slab changes the UPPCL was also violating the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2005 because it was the UPERC’s job to decide the tariff structure, with the stakeholders, including discoms, having nothing to do with it.
“Instead of accepting the UPPCL’s proposal for slab changes, the regulator must lower the power tariff to adjust more than ₹20,000 core that the corporation had overcharged from the consumers by making tariff hike more than required over the years,” he demanded.
