Bangalore: The election code of conduct has come to the rescue of power consumers for the second time in a row as the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) may be forced to put on hold the power tariff revision for the coming financial year by a few months.

Speaking on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of two new members of the commission here on Wednesday, KERC Chairman M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy said the KERC would write to the Election Commission of India (EC) seeking direction on whether to hold the public hearing for tariff revision this month.

“Ideally, we have to announce the tariff revision by the end of the financial year (March 31), and the revised tariff becomes applicable from April 1. But last year too, due to the code of conduct for the State Assembly elections, we announced the revised tariff on May 8 for consumption from May 1,” he said.

While maintaining that the code of conduct does not specify whether or not to hold a public hearing, Mr. Murthy said the KERC cannot work in conflict with the EC. “We will write to the EC. If they say it is advisable to defer the public hearing, we will,” he said.

The Electricity Supply Companies (Escoms) had filed their tariff revision application for 2014-15 in December 2013, seeking an increase in tariff of 66 paise per unit of power. The last date for filing objections is March 10. KERC officials said until now, there were 200-odd objections filed, and a surge of these are usually expected as the deadline draws closer. Last year, there were 2,227 objections filed and in 2012 there were 1,404 objections. “The objections are filed simultaneously with the KERC and the Escoms. The Escoms reply to these which will take about four days. The public hearings are held around five days later at the headquarters of the Escoms (Bangalore, Mangalore, Hubli, Gulbarga, Mysore). This takes around 10 days again,” Mr. Murthy explained.
New members

D.B. Manival Raju, former Commissioner of Income Tax, and H.D. Arun Kumar, former Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Department, have filled in the posts as members for a five-year tenure. The posts were vacant since October 23, but the KERC Chairman said the functions of the commission were not affected “significantly” as The Electricity Act 2003 specifies that the commission’s work should not stop due to vacancies.