Gujarat High Court notices to govt, Torrent & GERC

Responding to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Vipul Patel of Vadodara, a bench of the Gujarat high court has issued notices to the state government, Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) and Torrent Power limited. Through his litigation, Patel raised the issue of Torrent illegally recovering distribution and transmission loss from its consumers. The company, , which distributes power supply to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar cities, earns 14 to 16% profit for distributing power to consumers and is in violation of the Electricity Act, 2003, the PIL alleged. Moreover, the company was granted the license to operate by the government without inviting any bids or tenders, it said.

The PIL further mentioned that GERC should revise electricity rates and ensure the company refrains from recovering transmission and distribution loss charges from the consumer.
Patel's counsel Tejas Barot submitted before the court that Torrent power was given a license in 1997 for 28 years without inviting any bids or tenders.

The company has been allowed to completely negate the interests of the consumer, to earn profits of 14% to 16%, which is unbridled, baseless, unreasonable and unconscionable, mentioned the litigation.  It even recovers the transmission and distribution loss incurred by it from the consumers, for no fault of the consumers. 

Explaining about the recovery of charges, the PIL states that, if 100 units are generated by the generating station and at the delivery point - another generating station or sub-station - if only 90 units are delivered, the loss of 10 units is 'transmission loss'. 

Likewise, from the sub-station if 100 units are distributed to the point of connection of the consumer and if the consumer receives only 90 of those units, the loss of 10 units is 'distribution loss'. 

The PIL also mentions that there are cases of electricity theft which are unaccounted for. The electrical units in respect to which the theft is committed, results in a loss for the company. Such a loss is also recovered from consumers who abide by the law and regularly pay their dues. These actions are clearly aimed at enriching the company's coffers at the cost of the innocent consumers and appear to be legalized by the GERC, stated the PIL.