Tariff increased, burden on consumers T&D losses highest in the country Mudassir Kuloo SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir state has around 65-percent Aggravate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) and Transmission & Distribution (T&D) losses-highest in the country- despite, there having been an unprecedented increase in power tariff of over 70-percent in different metered categories for the past around five-years of the ruling dispensation. Official documents of the government reveal that the decline in energy deficit has been achieved despite very high AT&C losses of 63.8 percent. While as according to the Abraham Committee report, the percentage of T&D losses of JKPDD in 2007-2008 had been 43 percent, in 2009-2010 62.06 percent, 60.55 percent in 2010-2011 while as JKPDD has proposed to reduce the loss to 52.82 percent in 2012-2013. AT&C concept was introduced as the T&D loss was not able to capture all the losses in the net work. AT&C loss captures technical as well as commercial losses in the network. The Abraham report had also slammed the JKPDD, saying it has not made any serious effort to reduce the loss levels. “Instead of curbing the loss, they are seeking to pass on the burden of the entire loss level to the consumers,” the report says. However, the official document of the government, says that PDD is pursuing all necessary measures to reduce T&D losses. The government admits in the document that reducing T&D losses alone would not address the issue of power deficit in the state.“Despite excessive illegal load, there has been substantial increase in energy procurement from 10332.590 MUs in 2009 to 12052.168 MUs in 2012-13,” the documents said. Ironically, there has been unprecedented increase in power tariff in the state over the same period of time.Official sources said, in 2008-2009, consumers in the domestic category upto ½ KW had to pay Rs 160 as monthly tariff which has been increased to Rs 260 today. For consumers in the category of 1-KW, they had to pay Rs 310 in 2008-2009 and now paying Rs 534 per month with a hike of around 70-percent over these years. In the commercial category, there has been over 70-percent power tariff hike. While as in non-metered areas, there has been 100-percent to 300 percent increase in power tariff over these years.To reduce the losses, government said there is no proposal for underground cabling in the state. It said the project would cost thousands of crores of rupees for replacing already existing infrastructure.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 04:04:59 +0000
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