The Hindu Business Line : Electric blues

IF there is one public utility most Keralites would love to swear at, it must surely be the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), the giver - or, on most occasions, the non-giver - of the power that lights up their lives.

With the recent introduction of electronic meters to monitor electricity consumption, that resentment has only risen many-fold - often to unacceptably irritating levels. Poor widows who depend on pensions for survival are shocked to near-death by the bills that the new-generation high-tech meters generate.

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairman, Mr M.K.G. Pillai, said at a recent press conference that the KSEB had given an undertaking that all faulty meters at the consumers' end would be replaced before the end of March 2003. Perhaps he meant 2004 ... or 2005 or 2006...

Not that consumers will be salivating to get the new meters, so scared are they of their wallet-shrinking abilities.

According to a white paper on borrowing and debt servicing furnished to the ERC by the KSEB in February this year, the dues outstanding from its consumers came to Rs. 1,043 crores on December 31, 2003. KSEB claimed that its collection efficiency was between 90 and 92 per cent.

This had to be improved to a level of over 98 per cent, says the ERC.

For its part, KSEB attributes the gap in bill collection to the amounts habitually kept outstanding by government departments and agencies such as the Kerala Water Authority.

Therein lies the rub. It is not as if an abundance of technology (fancy, overactive meters) or administrative over-enthusiasm (rounding up consumers willy-nilly) is to blame for the poor state of affairs at KSEB. The plain fact is that KSEB has always been a slothful, bureaucratic, overstaffed organisation that has never been able to fathom the needs and wishes of its consumers.

According to the ERC, KSEB had taken high-interest loans to the tune of Rs. 2,376 crores as on December 31, 2003. Stressing that the ever-increasing debt burden of the KSEB was a matter of serious concern, the ERC chairman told presspersons, "In our view, swapping of all high-interest loans with low-interest ones should be given top priority by the KSEB. It should come up with a time-bound action plan for this."

He added time and cost overruns in implementing capital works undertaken by the KSEB were another matter of concern.

"There is no material on record to show that physical progress corresponding to the meagre investments made on capital works is being achieved," he pointed out.

As the KSEB bosses try to answer that criticism, let them also listen to this complaint from a typical consumer who shall remain unnamed, but was angered enough to post it to a website: "The KSEB's farsighted and intelligent way of dealing with the power crises is to subject us to a half-hour power cut every day.

A typical `we will fix it once its broke' approach to problem solving. No efforts to look for a long-term solution.

To invest a little research and money into alternatives. To use more power-efficient systems. No sir! And so from 6.30 to 10.00 pm, in half hour slots that change every week, sections of the State are plunged into darkness."

Perhaps it's time for KSEB to start monitoring such consumer responses, rather than run up huge arrears on loans.

The writer can be contacted at kg@tug.org.in