At a time when the Maharashtra government was trying to bring about a uniform power tariff for Mumbai, its own power distribution company, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), has refused to reduce the tariff. MSEDCL that supplies power to 15 lakh consumers across the city especially between Bhandup and Kunjurmarg, said that it cannot have different tariffs for Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra government had planned of introducing uniform power tariff for the city ahead of the municipal corporation poll scheduled next year. For this, the state had even appointed a committee to check the proposal’s feasibility.
Mumbai gets most of its power from Tata, Reliance and BEST. The proposal was first rejected by Reliance and then by MSEDCL, a major power supplier to the rest of the state.
“We cannot have different tariff for Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. The tariff levied on Maharashtra consumers should be the same for Mumbai consumers. We have refused to reduce our tariff for Mumbai as it will affect other consumers across the state,” said chairman and MD of MSEDCL Sanjeev Kumar.
Currently, there is huge difference in the tariffs in the city and suburban area as different companies supply power at different places. While BEST has maximum number of its consumers in the island city, Tata, MSEDCL and Reliance remain in demand in the eastern and western suburbs.
A few months ago, energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule had announced of plans to bring some parity in the electricity tariff for the city consumers on the lines of Delhi. After understanding the practical implications, the minister said that the consumers using power up to 100 MW would have equal power tariff. But with the state-owned companies’ negative response, the equal tariff for the city may remain a distant dream.
Pointing at the complexities in implementing the plan, sources in the energy department said that the government would have to give subsidy to make the tariff equal. “The bone of contention is that in case the tariff of a type of consumers is lowered, others will suffer as they will have to pay more. In such cases, the industrial consumers mostly bear the brunt. As the city has few industrial consumers, the state will have to give subsidy like the previous government. Hence, it is very complicated to make the power tariff equal for the city,” sources said.
