TS DISCOMs gear up to hike true up charges

Hyderabad: While the Chief Minister has been alleging that the Centre had pushed the common man into serious trouble by increasing rates of petrol, diesel, gas etc, the Telangana DISCOMs have come up with a proposal to levy true up charges from electricity consumers.

Under this, the DISCOMs want to mop up Rs 35,000 crore from the consumers. This would mean that if a person who is living in a rented house shifts from to the other, he will have to shell out two to three times more as electricity charges for the power consumed by the previous tenants during previous years.

It may be mentioned here that the DISCOMs in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had also come up with a similar proposal which was struck down by the court and the government decided to bear the true up charges. This issue is snowballing into a controversy and is being opposed by all sections. Power experts said that the power utilities have no right to ask the Electricity Regulatory Commission's (TSERC) to permit them to collect the true up charge for the previous years without submitting ARRs (Annual Aggregate Revenue Requirements).

The government has given nod to the utilities to submit new tariff proposals for the new financial year which begins from April. In addition, the DISCOMs wanted to collect true up charges without consulting the government. In the recently held meeting, the DISCOMs managements informed the ERC about the collection of true up charges to tide over the financial crisis.

They said in the last five years between 2016 and 2021, the total losses accumulated was Rs 35,743 crore as the utilities spend crores of rupees on power purchase and supply them with subsidised prices. Hence the DISCOMs wanted to recover the losses through true up charges along with revised power tariff.

Energy expert Venugopal told The Hans India that the provisions in the electricity regulatory act do not permit the discoms to seek the ERC's permission to collect five year true up charges at one go. This would put very heavy burden on the consumers.

He said that 'it is the mockery of regulatory process' that the utilities are trying to put all burden on the consumers to overcome the financial crisis. The DISCOMs have escaped from their responsibility of filing ARRs every year on the pretext Assembly elections, Lok Sabha elections and local body elections, he said.