The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE) has issued a showcause notice to the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) asking why exemplary cost or adequate fine should not be imposed on the latter for failing to comply with its directions, besides criticising the ATE’s orders.
Taking strong exception to what it called “judicial indiscipline”, the full bench of the ATE of chairperson Justice M Karpaga Vinayagam and two other technical members, directed the OERC chairman or any one of its members - who have signed the order, to appear before it for ‘in camera hearing’ on October 7- to file the affidavit making submission on show cause notice.
The OERC also has been asked to file an affidavit explaining the circumstances as to why the cost or fine should not be imposed on the State Commission. However, the ATE full bench has preferred to give a chance to the OERC to hear them before imposing any fine.
The matter of the case refers to the scheme of tariff determination under the Electricity Act, 2003, in which cross subsidy has to be calculated on the basis of “actual cost of supply” or “voltage wise cost of supply”. But the OERC has taken “average cost of supply” as the basis for tariff determination.
Industrial houses like Tata Steel Ferro Alloys Corporation, OCl India and Balasore Alloys ltd had gone on an appeal to the ATE challenging the OERC order on January 21 last year re-determining the cross subsidy in tariff for 2010 and 2011 fiscal without following the Tribunal’s order.
Earlier, the EHT consumers had filed separate appeals before the tribunal questioning the modus operandi the OERC has followed in deciding the tariff structures the for them.
The ATE also had given specific directions relating to determination of voltage-wise cost of supply in response to these appeals, so that in future tariff orders the cross subsidy for different categories of consumers is determined with respect to cost of supply for respective consumer categories.
The outcome of this unique battle between two quasi judicial bodies will have much bearing on the tariff determination in the coming years, experts said here.