‘Can’t ensure uniform power tariff without govt subsidy’

A government subsidy and intervention by electricity regulator are vital to making city’s power tariff uniform, representatives of the four power utilities said at a seminar held by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the YB Chavan Centre on Wednesday.

A government subsidy and intervention by electricity regulator are vital to making city’s power tariff uniform, representatives of the four power utilities said at a seminar held by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the YB Chavan Centre on Wednesday.

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Ajoy Mehta, energy secretary and managing director of state power distribution arm Mahavitaran, asked the regulator to do away with the compulsion of buying expensive green power as it added up to the average cost of supply. “I have asked the regulator to allow us to sell expensive power to those who can afford it for running their ACs. My company manages a cross subsidy of Rs 10,000 crore for a year and makes energy affordable for small consumers.”

Mehta said that the decision to give subsidy was entirely political and beyond the control of administrators. Criticising the option of allowing big consumers to buy power from sources other than the existing supplier, he said, “It is against the philosophy of equitable social distribution. Only rich consumers cannot be allowed to corner energy.”

While Kishor Patil, VP, Reliance Infrastructure, asked the government to pitch in with subsidy and inexpensive power supply for utilities, Tata Power’s corporate regulation head Vidyadhar Wagle said that present circumstances did not provide for uniform tariff.