MERC taxes malls, multiplexes; saves BPL in tariff revision

Mumbia, Apr 27 (UNI) Maharashtra Electric Regulatory Commission (MERC) today announced a new tariff category for all multiplexes and shopping malls, while going soft on consumers below poverty line (BPL).

The new tariffs will be effective from May 1 and will remain in force till March 31 next year, a statement said here.

Under the new policy, all multiplexes and shopping malls with a sanctioned load of more than 20 KW with a fixed charge of Rs 300 per KVA per month and energy charge of Rs 8.50 per KWh.

For advertisement and hoardings category, including floodlights, neon signs at various places and advertisements and hoardings in commercial establishment, the fixed charge was increased to Rs 400 per month, and energy charge has been increased to Rs 14 per KWH.

Apart from this, the Commission has introduced a new consumption slab in the existing LT-1 (Domestic) category, for consumers consuming above 500 units per month.

The tariff for domestic category with a monthly consumption upto 300 units has been maintained at around the existing level.

For the higher consumption slabs of over 300 units and 500 units per month, tariff was set higher to act as a disincentive for high consumption.

However, the tariffs for consumers below poverty line (BPL) have not been increased, while the fixed and demand charges have been reduced, to lessen the burden on consumers affected by load-shedding to such a large extent, the release said.

Similarly, the Commission has decided to retain agriculture tariffs at the existing level but the severe load shedding of 12 to 15 hours for agriculture category will continue to prevail for some more time.

The tariffs for Lift Irrigation Schemes have been increased slightly, to recover part of the increase in cost of supply, and considering that such schemes would get continuous supply of at least 16 hours at a stretch, as indicated by MSEDCL.

The Commission has directed MSEDCL to reduce the distribution losses by 4 per cent during each year of the Control Period, which will result in additional revenue for MSEDCL, through a combination of reduction of commercial and technical losses.

The Commission has continued with the approach of allocating costly power to only those categories which are getting the benefit of reduced load shedding, while the non-costly power has been distributed equally to all categories and regions.

The Maharashtra State Electric Distribution Corporation Ltd will have an in-built incentive to supply more electricity and recover its fixed cost fully. The expenditure on costly power is to be recovered through the levy of Additional Supply Charges (ASC) from the specified consumer categories.

ASC will now be levied on 24 per cent of the consumption for continuous industries and Railways, as compared to 42 per cemt earlier, and on 11 per cent of the consumption for industries facing one day staggering, as compared to 28 per cent earlier.

ASC will not be levied on industries facing two days of load shedding, as well as on other categories like domestic, commercial, etc, irrespective of their location.

The rebates/incentives and disincentives have been retained with certain modifications, to make their applicability consistent across the State and tariff categories have been simplified in the case of industries, and only industries connected on express feeders and demanding continuous supply will be deemed as continuous industry and given continuous supply, while all other industrial consumers will be deemed as non-continuous industry.

The load shedding protocol will continue as per the MERC order issued on April 23. The Commission had last revised the tariffs on October 1 last year.

UNI