Chandigarh, January 29 (Doaba News Service)- Farmers in Punjab are in danger of being charged full tariff for running their tubewells from March. The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has informed the state government that it will invoke Section 65 of the Electricity Act, 2003, in case the government does not pay the entire subsidy due to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) by the first week of March. The government owes the PSEB Rs 1,038 crore as of January 1 this year. Besides this the government has not paid Rs 386 crore due to the PSEB on account of excess interest paid by the board on government loans as well as interest levied on the delayed amount of subsidy for the previous years. The PSERC in a letter to the government recently has made it clear that it will invoke Section 65 of the Electricity Act, 2003, as well as charge penal interest on the delayed amount of subsidy in case the government does not liquidate its entire liability towards subsidy payment to the board by the first week of March. Section 65 of the Electricity Act states that in case subsidy is not paid as directed by the commission, the order of the government for giving ...
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Jalandhar, January 22 (Doaba News Service)- Hold your breath for a while. The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), which is in dire fiscal straits, wants a whooping increase of about 51 per cent in the existing tariff across the board for all consumers to meet its aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) for the next fiscal year (2010-11). For the current fiscal year, the increase in the tariff, ordered by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) was in the range of 10-12 per cent for various categories of consumers to generate a revenue of Rs 759 crore to meet its ARR. The PSEB has pegged a cumulative revenue gap of Rs 6,575 crore in the petition submitted to the PSERC for the next fiscal year and has prayed to the commission to raise the tariff accordingly to realise the amount from the power consumers. The commission has sought objections from the public on the petition. How the commission would deal with such a huge increase in the tariff, it remains to be seen. Already, there is a difference of opinion in the PSEB and the commission over the consumption of power in the farm sector. The commission had last year reduced the projected consumption in the farm ...
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