Friday, June 24,
Providing relief to domestic consumers, the Orissa High Court on Wednesday extended the interim stay on proposed power tariff hike by Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission till June 27. Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the hike, a bench of Justice B P Das and Justice B K Mishra ordered to extend the interim stay on collection of the new rate from domestic consumers till the next hearing of the case.
Commercial consumers, however, will have to pay the new tariff. Modifying its order for industrial units and business houses that consume high tension, low tension and extra high tension electricity, the court directed that these consumers would be provided with two electricity bills, one as per the old rates and the second one with the new rates. At present, they would have to pay the tariff as per the hiked rates. But if the verdict of the case comes in their favour, then OERC would adjust the extra amount paid by them in future bills.
“The court has directed to extend the interim stay on proposed power tariff hike on the domestic consumers till June 27, but for the commercial consumers it has modified the order. The court has directed them to pay tariff as per the hiked rates,” said petitioner, Dilip Mohapatra.
OERC had decided to hike the power tariff from April 1. But the Utkal Chamber of Commerce comprising 239 industrial units, the Federation of Consumer Organizations of Orissa and the Keonjhar Navanirman had moved the court against the hike, which they termed “illegal and arbitrary”. The petitioners alleged that OERC was inflicting a burden on consumers by pressurizing authorities for a tariff hike instead of finding ways to minimize the loss. There was no transparency in the manner in which the four distribution companies were conducting their business, the petitioners had added.
Source: TOI
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