ATE slash down tariff margin of GRIDCO: Orissa to move to SC

Bhubaneswar, Dec 6 (UNI) The Orissa government is contemplating filing an appeal to the Supreme Court against a ruling of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity (ATE) slashing the tariff margin of state-owned GRIDCO in the inter-state trading of surplus power.

The ATE in its recent order has directed the GRIDCO to refund the excess margin charges it had collected by way of trading power to outside states and various companies.

The order gave a serious blow to the GRIDCO, which had earned nearly Rs 3000 crore by selling surplus power from the state during the last three and a half-year with a trading margin of Rs 853 crore.

The GRIDCO, meanwhile, has decided to suspend the trading of the surplus power but continue to evacuate the surplus power through the Unscheduled Interchange route(UI) in the grid system.

The ATE has also directed the GRIDCO to refund the excess charged by way of margin estimated at around Rs 270 crore. The suspension of trading power had resulted in the loss of crores of rupees for GRIDCO which was already facing a financial crisis.

State Energy Minister S N Patra said the GRIDCO would challenge the tribunal order in the Apex court and the state government would be a party to the case. GRIDCO was on an average trading over 200 MW of power which further increased to almost 400 MW to various other states through various power trading companies. The company was selling power per unit at a price ranging from Rs.4.61 paisa to Rs 5.70 paisa as against the production cost of Rs 1.10 paisa.

The ATE had passed the order while allowing an appeal by one Mr Gajendra Haladia of Delhi, who had challenged the high trading margin of GRIDCO. Mr Haldia had to move the ATE after his petition was rejected by the Central Electricity Regulatory Authority (CERC).

The ATE while setting aside the CERC order, directed that the trading margin in no case should be exceeded four paisa per unit. The order, official sources said would have an adverse effect on the company as well as the consumers in Orissa who might encounter a stiff hike in the power tariff next year.

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