WBSEB move to mop up revenue

KOLKATA: The West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) has proposed to withdraw the concession in energy charges in case of new industrial units, the sick companies under rehabilitation package and for those companies which are on an expansion mode.
The WBSEB proposal is pregnent with immense significance as this would mean a 30 per cent enhancement in electricity bill in case of new, sick and expanding companies.The proposal has been sent to the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) for the latter’s approval and ratification.
It might be pointed out that in a bid to boost the local industry the West Bengal government had been offering a sop of 30 per cent concession on energy bill in case of new and expanding units. A similar concession was also offered in case of sick units that were under various rehabilitation those which were on a expansion spree.
While in case of new units the concession was for six years, for sick units and expanding units the sop was for three years.
Needless to say the local industry is highly aggrieved by WBSEB’s proposal.
Besides proposing to withdraw the concession on energy charges, the WBSEB has also proposed for a 12.5 per cent tariff hike for 2004-05 including an interim tariff hike of about seven per cent provided the final tariff could not be approved before April 1, 2004. The WBSEB expects to garner a total revenue of Rs 4428.22 crore through the fresh tariff hike.
The board has further proposed to "introduce identical tariff in rural and urban areas in case of domestic, commercial and industrial consumers under low and medium voltage sector". Though the cross-subsidy matter was still hanging fire, however, the WBSEB has sought for reducing the charges in case of high tension consumers.
In case of the private sector public utility company, CESC Ltd, the board has proposed to charge "off-peak" tariff to CESC on monthly consumption in excess of of 17 million units.
While the WBSEB has decided to withdraw the concession on energy charges for new, sick and expanding units, however, the board has proposed to bring "auditoriums under the purview of tariff applicable for sports and stadiums".