Published On : Mon, Sep 15th, 2014

Tribunal orders MERC to refund AEC & additional surcharge to consumers

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The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, delivering a blow, has set aside Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission’s order imposing additional cross subsidy surcharge on open access consumers of Maharashtra for the period Sept.2013 to Feb. 2014. An appeal was filed by Vidarbha Industries Association against the MERC order.

Nagpur: Delivering yet another shattering blow to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) and MSEDCL as well, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity has set aside Commission’s order imposing additional cross subsidy surcharge on open access consumers of Maharashtra for the period Sept.2013 to Feb. 2014. Delivering the order on an appeal filed by Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA), the Tribunal further said it is open to the Appellants to approach the Distribution Company for refund of the amount, which has been collected earlier.
In view of the Tribunal order, R.B. Goenka of VIA said that “MSEDCL should refund complete AEC charges and additional cross subsidy collected from open access consumers during the period Sept. 2013 to Feb. 2014 along with interest”.

He further said that “The Tribunal said that it is open for the appellants to approach the Distribution Company for refund of the amount which has been collected earlier. Hence it is advised to consumers to approach MSEDCL for refund of AEC charges and refund of additional cross subsidy surcharge charged during the specified period.

Recently Competition Commission of India had initiated inquiry against MSEDCL and MSPGCL on the issue of killing competition in power sector and passing on inefficiency to consumers.

The Chairman of Appellates Tribunal for Electricity Justice M Karpaga Vinayagam and Technical Member Rakesh Nath in their order said, “We have heard the learned counsels for the parties. It is noticed that the Order passed on 05.09.2013 has already been set aside in Appeal No. 295 of 2013, and the matter has been remanded for re-determination. Consequently, the impugned Order dated 29.10.2013 challenged in this Appeal has also to be set aside and remanded for re-determination. In view of the above Order, it is open to the Appellants to approach the Distribution Company for refund of the amount, which has been collected earlier. With these observations, both the Appeals are disposed of.”

Counsellors Chinmoy Pradeep Sharma and Sharad Sharma represented Vidarbha Industries Association while Buddy A Ranganadhan and Sameer Malik represented Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

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