Chandigarh, May 3
In what is the first serious crisis in financial management before the newly-formed SAD-BJP government, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission, in an unprecedented move, has decided that it will now calculate the power tariff for consumers on its own and announce it. The commission will not wait for the state government to decide the tariff.

A decision in this regard was taken at a sitting of the commission on April 30 after the Punjab State Electricity Board failed to even submit its annual revenue requirement (ARR). This was to project the cost of power purchase, the recovery of money from consumers, inflow of revenue and crucially, the component of subsidy to be paid by the government for supplying free power to various sections of society. The PSEB was supposed to submit the ARR before November 30, 2006. Official sources in the PSEB and also in the commission confirmed the development which has far-reaching consequences here today.

The PSEB failed to submit its ARR despite suffering losses running into crores. Or was it shying away from the reality of the power subsidy bill that was nearly Rs 2000 crore? This government as well as the previous one led by Captain Amarinder Singh had announced free power to various sections of society hence jacking up the subsidy bill.

With the municipal elections scheduled for June this year, the last thing the Parkash Singh Badal-led government would want is a commission deciding the power tariff while keeping out the political jugglery of the government. On the one hand, the government cannot afford to “annoy” the urban voter. On the other hand, it now faces a financial crisis of managing the power sector.

The commission is fully empowered to announce the tariff within 120 days from April 30. If it does so the loss accruing from April 1 till September will be huge while the tariff cannot be recovered with retrospective affect. This will sink the PSEB even deeper into financial mess, opined an official, who did not wish to be quoted.