Review petitions filed before OERC against increased tariff orders.

Bhubaneswar: Three review petitions have been filed before the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) challenging the recent tariff hike order.

Power analyst Ananda Mohapatra has filed the petitions last month on the illegal and unlawful pass outs in the proceedings to determine the Average Cost of Supply (ACoS) of Electricity for the FY-2022. Mohapatra has been working for the development state power sector so also to safeguard the interest of the State and consumers at large was a respondent in the tariff proceedings carried out by OERC for FY-2022 like the previous years.

The above three Review Petitions have been filed each against the Retail Supply Tariff (RST) Order of the four Distribution Companies (DISCOMs), Bulk Supply Price (BSP) Order of GRIDCO & Transmission Tariff (TT) Order of OPTCL issued by OERC on dt 26.03.2021 seeking review of the increased RST by 30 Paisa//Unit, BSP by 8 Paisa/Unit & TT by 3 Paisa/Unit for the FY-2022. For the first time since the inception of OERC in 1996, a respondent has filed three review petitions on behalf of the State and consumers at large for review of the Commission’s Order before which no respondents have done that except the Petitioner’s Companies.

Huge discontentment of the people and consumers are seen in the State over the increase of the retail tariff by 30 Paisa/Unit for which the opposition political parties had stalled the ongoing session of Assembly on dated 31.03.2021 and demanded not only the withdrawal of above 30 paisa but also the 20 paisa which was increased in last Sep-2020.

State energy minister Dibya Shankar Mishra assured the House that govrnment will file review petition in OERC for reconsideration of the increased Tariff Orders. However, it is understood that the State government has not filed any Review Petitions in OERC till now.

In the meantime, Bharat Bikash Parishada had filed a PIL in the Odisha high court of Odisha and hearing the matter, the court said that the PIL has not been filed in proper procedure because the opposite party OERC has not been given opportunity to redress the matter before filing of the PIL. Hence the court has dismissed the case on dated 20.04.2021.

“Unless the above mistakes committed by OERC in the tariff proceedings and orders are rectified, the state power sector cannot be turned around”, said the petitioner Ananda Mohapatra who has sought that the increased tariff order be kept in abeyance till the disposal of the review petitions by the Commission.