No relief from shock treatment of KSEB

The annual shock treatment of the electricity board has been implemented since Thursday. In old times, shocking the mentally ill was one of the methods of treatment. It was a time when sophisticated treatment methods were not developed as they are today. On the other hand, the Kerala State Electricity Board is continuously shocking all the electricity consumers. This incremental rate hike is an easy way to deal with corruption, extravaganza and wasteful expenditure due to lack of planning. The board will get Rs 408 crore more through the current hike till March. 695 crore through the hike in April. The Board had requested for an increase of Rs 800 crores, but the Regulatory Commission did not allow it. The reality is that even if the board gets Rs 800 crore more, it is not going to recover from the losses. According to the estimate put forward by the board itself, the loss this year will be Rs 1370 crore. The loss is expected to be 1108 crores next year and 1065 crores the following year. As such, except for taking the curse of the customers with the current rate hike, the board is not gonna save itself.

Firm measures are needed to improve the financial status of the board and make the administration efficient. For that, the cooperation and support of the 'infallible unions' in the Electricity Board should be ensured. Not many days ago, CMD Biju Prabhakar said that if things go like this, KSEB will become another KSRTC, unable to even pay salaries. While the increase is said to be 16 paise per unit till March, the overall increase will be higher as other rates will be added along with it. For a user of 300 units per month, the two-month rate will increase to Rs 4,791 from the current Rs 4,612. There will be an increase in duty and fixed charges. The board is not ready to waive even the meter rent that it has been charging for years. The board says that the poor who consume up to 40 units of electricity have been exempted from the rate hike. The board should have provided an estimate of how many consumers fall under this category in the state.

While all the other states are reducing the electricity rates, only Kerala is increasing the rates sharply. In all the states where assembly elections were held in the recent past, the promise was to provide a certain unit of electricity free to common families. Years ago, the Aam Aadmi Party broke the 15-year Congress rule in Delhi by announcing that it would provide free water, electricity and bus travel. Many states that went to polls later followed this model. Here, on the other hand, without taking any measures to increase electricity production, the burden is being placed on the consumer by buying electricity from outside at exorbitant prices. Even small projects that can be completed in two or three years do not end here even if they take ten or fifteen years. Consumers will certainly have to pay exorbitant rates for electricity in the future when this inefficiency is coupled with the corrupt management of the board. The government claims that the rate hike is nominal. The government is not mindful of the huge burden that would arise when the marginal increase is introduced every year. The people here are forced to tolerate anything.