Congress wants uniform power tariff across city

The city’s Congress unit on Saturday urged the state government to introduce uniform power tariffs across Mumbai.

The city’s Congress unit on Saturday urged the state government to introduce uniform power tariffs across Mumbai.

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The city has four power firms, each of which supplies different localities and has its own rates. While the island city has the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), Reliance Infrastructure supplies to most of the suburbs.

State-owned Mahavitaran supplies power to some eastern suburbs, Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Tata Power Company, which supplies power to BEST and Reliance Infra, has now entered the retail business.

“Suburban consumers have been recently hit by a steep tariff hike. The government must ensure that the tariff is the same across the city,” said Mumbai Congress President Kripashankar Singh after a meeting of Congress legislators and parliamentarians.

“We will meet Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and put forth this demand. The government should pay subsidy if needed so that suburban consumers are not charged too much,” Singh said.

Last week, Reliance Infrastructure, which supplies power to most of the suburbs, raised rates by about 30 per cent.

About 23 lakh of Reliance Infrastructure’s 28 lakh consumers are domestic users.

The Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party have already threatened agitations against the tariff hike.

Now, Singh said, the Congress would launch an agitation against its own government if consumers were made to pay higher rates.