The Hindu Business Line : Kerala Govt rules out power cut, tariff hike

DESPITE the poor inflow into the State's hydel reservoirs, the Kerala Government has ruled out imposition of any load-shedding or power cut during the current year.

Also, there will not be any increase in the power tariffs for agricultural and domestic consumers even though the State is now increasingly dependent on thermal power to compensate for the shortfall in hydel generation, according to the Minister for Electricity, Mr Aryadan Mohammed.

He said on Thursday that the total inflow into the reservoirs on Wednesday was equivalent to 35 million units, much below the level achieved during the same period last year. The inflow in May was less than half of what the reservoirs received in the same month last year.

The Minister explained that NTPC had agreed to allocate 180 MW to the KSEB at less than Rs 1.50 a unit.

This, among other things, would help the board maintain the tariffs at the existing level.

He also said the State had been granted a Central incentive of Rs 64.94 crore to improve efficiency in the power sector. Kerala is one of five States to get the incentive, the others being West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

In an assessment carried out by Crisil, Kerala was rated high in tasks such as reduction in transmission and distribution losses, cutting down the revenue gap, and avoiding tariff increase.

The overall rating would have been higher had the State not slipped in the matter of collection arrears, which was mainly due from the Government and PSUs, the Minister added.

The revenue deficit of KSEB had come down from Rs 1,007.42 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 663.54 crore (unaudited) in 2004-05.

But the State Electricity Regulatory Commission has projected the deficit for the last year at Rs 296 crore.

In the current year, the board has estimated a deficit of Rs 492.25 crore and the commission has put it at a much lower level of Rs 51 crore. The debt burden of the board had also been brought down from Rs 5,355.65 crore as on March 31, 2004 to Rs 4,541.65 crore at the end of March 2005.

The reduction in debt and swapping of loans enabled the board to save Rs 37 crore, the Minister said.

Under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 139.85 crore for improving the power supply system in Thiruvananthapuram. The work on the project has already commenced.

Similar schemes in Kochi and Kozhikode, costing Rs 149.5 crore and Rs 84.36 crore respectively, will be taken up for implementation this year.

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