PANAJI
The Civic and Consumer Rights Forum, GOACAN, has likened Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) meetings to a ‘redressal forum’ arguing that the Electricity Department’s failure to resolve the ever-increasing issues while imposing tariff hikes, has led to this situation.
Co-ordinator of GOACAN Roland Martins lamented that consumers are not informed about their entitlements. “The department should conduct taluka meetings to engage with all sections of power consumers. JERC is serving as a grievance redressal meeting… The problems raised by consumers at the meeting should ideally be discussed at the taluka level,” he said speaking to The Goan.
Activists like Claude Alvares and Roland Martins among a few others have supported power consumers, majorly comprising the residential consumers, in opposing the proposed tariff hike, which would be the third in a row if approved.
Martins criticized the hike as unjustified, pointing out unresolved issues like transmission losses, unstable power supply, and equipment damage due to power fluctuations. “We are opposing the hike because the State is yet to see any concrete steps taken by the Electricity Department to control transmission losses, recovery of arrears and a crackdown on power thefts by those illegally involved in tourism businesses,” he added.
Martins further said that the Electricity Act, which is over 20 years old, speaks about giving benefits to those facing uninterrupted power supply issues by allowing bill rebates, but no action has been taken on this front. “The formula is yet to be prepared,” he stated.
If approved and implemented from April 1, 2024, the proposed hike will affect nearly 4 lakh middle-income groups and industries, Martins added, emphasizing the need for the department to address persisting issues before implementing further tariff hikes.
“The previous hikes have not yielded results for many ongoing problems. There is no need to further burden the power consumers, who are unhappy with the performance of the department,” he said.
Electricity (Rights of
Consumers) Rules 2020
1. Rights of Consumers and obligations of distribution licensees; 2. Release of a new connection and modification in an existing connection; 3. Metering arrangement; 4. Billing and payment; 5. Disconnection and reconnection; 6. Reliability of supply; 7. Consumer as prosumer; 8. Standards of performance of licensee; 9. Compensation mechanism; 10. Call centre for consumer services; 11. Grievance redressal mechanism
