KPTCL apologises to KERC

Bangalore, May 29 (UNI) The state owned Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) today apologised to Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) for its arbitrary decision to hike transmission tariff from 19 paise to 26 paise without taking permission from the concerned authorities.

KPTCL Managing Director Bharatlal Meena, during his submission before the KERC, in response to the objections raised by various organisations and individuals against KPTCL's Estimate Revenue Charges (ERC) for 2008-10, apologised for its earlier decision for increased transmission tariff to 26 paise.

Defending KPTCL for raising transmission he said the organisation had no other way but to increase tariff to run the business, after being instructed by the state government.

Taking serious note of the remark by Mr Meena the KERC Chairman K P Pandey said the KPTCL or any other agencies, including the state government, had no power to increase the transmission tariff. The matter should be settled through judicial process.

The KERC Chairman reminded KPTCL Managing Director that the Applette Tribunal had directed KPTCL to go before the KERC as it was the sole authority to either reduce or hike the transmission tariff rate and KPTCL's decision to ignore the KERC could not be tolerated.

It may be recalled that earlier the KERC had disallowed the appeal of KPTCL to increase the transmission tariff rate from 19 paise to 26 paise in the state.

The KPTCL had taken the matter to Apellete Tribunal and while disposing the matter had opined that KERC could look into the issue.

However, KPTCL instead of approaching KERC had arbitrarily increased the transmission tariff and started collection from the ESCOM's.

Meanwhile, the increased tariff price had resulted in additional collection of Rs 629 crore for KPTCL. Due to strong objection of the consumer bodies and intervention of KERC, the KPTCL had stopped collecting this additional rate.

Earlier, Mr Meena refuted all the objections raised during the public hearing on its ERC proposals.

UNI