In a significant development which is expected to benefit the HT consumers in a big way, particularly Industrial consumers, the APERC has decided to reduce the minimum period of agreement from two years to one year to both Low Tension and High Tension consumers by Proceedings dated May 5 to provide a reasonable relief to the consumers.
Justice Bhavani Prasad, Chairman/APERC stated that, during the public hearings held by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission for fixing the tariff for retail sale of electricity during FY 2015-16, a number of High Tension consumers and consumer organizations requested for the reduction of the minimum period of their agreement with distribution companies under General Terms and Conditions of Supply of Distribution and Retail Supply License in Andhra Pradesh from two years to one year. It was represented that, otherwise, the consumers are burdened with huge sums of liability even for small failures or defaults. The consumers stated that at the time of agreement, they were generally unaware of their actual requirement of demand or the actual demand for their product in the market etc., and hence, they are sustaining huge losses, as they cannot reduce their Contracted Maximum Demand for two years or cancel the subsequent phased demand. Hence, they requested for reduction of the minimum HT agreement period from two years to one year. Both the distribution companies in the State agreed for consideration of the request in view of the difficulties of the consumers.
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission considered the issue in depth and noted that the consumers are paying service line charges and development charges etc., i.e., the entire network cost and any change in the agreement period causes no loss to the distribution companies, whereas the consumers have no escape from the heavy liability for two years, even if they are justified in seeking a change even before.
Therefore, the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission amended the General Terms and Conditions of Supply reducing the minimum period of agreement from two years to one year to both Low Tension and High Tension consumers by Proceedings dated 05-05-2015 to provide a reasonable relief to the consumers.
Relief to SC/ST Consumers
The electricity consumers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes living in SC/ST households/colonies are now paying Rs.600/- towards development charges for a contracted load upto 500 W. It was brought to the notice of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission that earlier such consumers were exempted from payment of development charges with a contracted load upto 240 W under RGGVY programme. During the public hearings for fixing the tariff for retail sale of electricity during FY 2015-16, many consumers and consumer organizations have represented that such SC/ST consumers may be exempted from such development charges by giving appropriate directions under Regulation No.4 of 2013, as amended by Regulation No.5 of 2014. Both the distribution companies in the State positively responded with a view to encourage consumers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, hence, decided to accept such request and issued a direction under Proceedings No.Secy/07/2015 dated May 5 exempting Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe consumers living in SC/ST households/colonies with a contracted load upto 500 W from payment of Development Charges for obtaining any new electricity connection. (NSS)
