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Clarifications

One of the clarifications given by Government of India that is of relevance to electricity consumers is:

Applicability of Sections 126 and 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003:  Section 126 of the Electricity Act lays down that following detection of unauthorized use of electricity, the electricity charges payable by the person making use of or benefited by the use of unauthorized use shall be provisionally assessed to the best of the judgement of the inspecting officer.  Section 135 of the Act speaks about theft of electricity being punishable.  The Government of India clarified the difference between the ‘unauthorized use’ and ‘theft’ as being the latter necessarily possessing the ingredient of ‘dishonest intention’.  For prosecuting someone under section 135 of the Act, a complaint or report by the police to the Court is necessary u/s 151 of the Act.  Section 126 is for assessment of charges and would also be attracted in cases of offences covered u/s 135 of the Act where action is taken for the offence of theft and the situation of alleged commitment of offence is covered under the provisions of Section 126.

 

Some of the clarifications issued by the Hon’ble APERC that would be of relevance to electricity consumers:

Methodology for computation of load factor incentive:  The Commission clarified that load factor incentive should be given to only those of the consumers who do not exceed the contracted demand.  The contracted demand for this purpose shall be the contracted demand from the Licensee as well as from other sources, if any.  The demand utilized from the DISCOM shall be calculated as: (Units drawn from the Licensee x RMD)/Total recorded Units.

Clause 6 of the General Conditions of HT Supply: Clause 6 of the general conditions of HT supply speaks about additional charges for maximum demand in excess of the contracted demand.  The heading of column 1 of the table that was mentioned in the clause gave rise to some confusion.  Hence the Commission clarified that the same shall be read as “RMD as a percentage of CMD” instead of “Excess RMD over CMD.”

Implementation of GTCS provisions – De-ration of Contracted Demand:  A question arose about the applicability of minimum period of agreement of two years for HT consumers, when additional load is availed and de-ration of demand is being sought.  Whether the period of two year minimum would apply only to the additional contracted load or apply to the original load and the additional load.  Clarifying that the original load and additional loads are two different parts, the Commission interpreted clauses 5.9.3.2 and 5.9.4.2 of the GTCS (General Terms and Conditions of Service) and said if the demand part which is released prior to the release of the additional load, meets the requirement of minimum period of two years, it would be eligible for de-ration.  

 


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