The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) is the final authority to take a call on the issue of an upward revision of the power tariff, said Principal Secretary of Energy Department Suresh Chandra Mohapatra on Monday.
The OERC is a quasi-judicial body and it’s the final authority in the fixation of tariff. Every year, the OERC fixes tariff for different categories of electricity consumers like industries, domestic, etc, after hearing different interest groups and taking all factors into consideration, including all costs, he said.
“As far as I know the power distribution companies were dissatisfied with the tariff for power fixed by the OERC for the last four/five years and had appealed against it in the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE). Recently, the ATE has ordered the OERC to quash the existing tariff and fix it afresh after conducting fresh hearings on the matter,” said Mohapatra.
The OERC’s appeal against the ATE order is pending in the Supreme Court, and ultimately a decision would be taken at the apex court level. The revision of power tariff with retrospective effect for five years would entail a big burden on the consumers and put the Government in difficulty. But it’s the OERC which is the final authority in tariff matters. The Government is a party and participates in every OERC hearing on tariff revision. This time too, the Government would participate in the hearing and put forth its arguments, Mohapatra said.
The ATE has expressed its unhappiness over the OERC’s failure to implement its earlier order and asked it to compensate the discoms, managed by the Reliance Energy, by revising the power tariff from as early as 2006-07 retrospectively. The implementation of the ATE orders would entail a burden of about Rs 4,200 crore to be passed on to about 50 lakh power consumers in the State.