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| In case PDD data is to be believed ,the average family size in J&K is more than 10 souls | | A Look through the mist | | Daya Sagar | 4/12/2012 10:29:28 PM |
| Should the public institutions delivering common man
services like power , water , health , education , revenue
record up- keeping be allowed to carry on their non performance without any accountability ? Mr Abdul Rahim Rather started his budget speech in J&K Assembly with a couplet ‘Tez Hawa Sey Darnay Walay, Sahil Par Hi Dhoob Gaye; Toofan say ladney walon nay, manzil apni payee hai’. True only those who are ready to face boldly the adversities do succeed. But it is also a bitter truth that those who simply try to fascinate their self with wishful thinking would never lead their team to success. The captain can otherwise carry the crew deep into the black seas by following the Mirage of Beacon. The story of electric supply management in J&K appears no different. As per the disclosures made by J&K Finance Minister in Assembly the electricity purchase bill for the 2011-12 is expected to be around Rs 3000 Cr but PDD will be able to collect not more than Rs. 1100 to 1200 Cr from the field. The other point that need be attended seriously here is that the power purchase budgeted earlier was Rs 2400 Cr but it rose to Rs.3000 Cr. Where as the sales revenue collection that was targeted earlier as only Rs.1415 Cr for 2011-12 is expected to further dip to nearly Rs.1200 Cr. The power purchase for 2012-13 has been estimated at Rs.3100 Cr where as the sales revenue target has still been kept at just Rs.1732 Cr. This all deficit is not due to the reason that the PDD gives power to common man as well as industry after government provides huge subsidy , but it is because government gives huge grants to the PDD department for its for the non performance and inefficiency.. J&K Power Development Department ( JK PDD) has submitted a petition on 12 December 2011 before the J&K State Electricity Regulatory Commission (JKSERC) seeking approval for the Annual Revenue requirements for the year 2012-2013.Revised annual revenue figure for 2011-12 has been mentioned as Rs.3991.20 Cr and the estimates for Annual Revenue Requirement ( without any sales tariff revision) for 2012-13 has been submitted as Rs. 4,105.46 Cr respectively. In another petition submitted on 3rd January 2012 PDD is demanding 23 % ( metered ) to 35% ( un metered) tariff increase in domestic tariff and 21 ( metered ) to 31 % ( un metered) in commercial non domestic tariff. The Transmission & Distribution losses (T&D losses) in the state for FY 2010-11 have been quoted as 60.55% and for FY 2011-12 are being projected as 56.76% by PDD. Taj Mohi-ud-Din , a senior Minister in Omar Cabinet had in February this year said in a local TV discussion that T&D losses of J&K Power development Department are nearly 70% ( he may not be exactly quoting figure but it is sure that the Minister was very near to the real figure ). Any how let us still believe the data of PDD ( even ignoring the fact that some figures are self contradicting when reference is also made to the petition of the department as made for 2011-2012 ). What clearly comes out of all this that this day the bad performance of PDD is no secret..
The sales revenue figures , the T&D losses and demand for heavy increase in the tariff for 2012-2013 would surely disturb any one with a rational mind. Such like data on performance should have disturbed the Finance Minister of J&K as well but it appears that he too has not tackled this problem with a needed approach while presenting the 2012-2013 Budget on 5th March and in the debate thereafter.
On 10th March while referring to the budget as presented Mr Rather informed the J&K Legislative Assembly J&K that the State Government has planned to introduce ‘Energy Accounting System’ in the State wef April 1, 2012 . The new system aims at making the officials accountable for ensuring that the load shown by the distribution transformers is also reasonably reflected in the bills raised on the consumers. Surely such action was necessitated inview of the so called transmission and distribution losses being more than 2/3rd of the total power flowing in the lines. But, so far, all efforts and projections for curtailing the losses effectively have not succeeded even after installation J&K State Electricity Regulatory Authority (1st June 2006).
Why give so much of finance to PDD for purchase of power when PDD proposals itself mention in the demands itself that there is very very heavy illegal outflow ?. Mr. Rather has not replied.The “ failure story” of the concernedness of the PDD & JKSERA is well narrated by the PDD data itself as laid in its petitions before the JKSERC. The data on the power as submitted by the PDD to J&K State Electricity Regulatory Commission very clearly show that the so low power sales collection is not due to unduly subsidized tariff of power supply but it is due (i) un reasonably high distribution and transmission losses reflected by the PDD (ii) huge number of unregistered power connections (iii) poor management of the infrastructure retained for the purpose and disproportionately high establishment cost (iv) due to improper and under recording of the consumer usages (v) faulty tariff structure that has so far discouraged the truthful consumers (vi) un realistic minimum charges kept for even the metered connections which has (a) discouraged even the honest consumers to enhance their contract load ( b) come in the way of the department for assessing the real connected load on a distribution line. In the power tariff revision petition filed by Development Commissioner of Power before the J&K SERAC the domestic power connection for 2010-11 have been shown as 10.85 Lac ( 5,26073 M + 5,59342 UM ) , for 2011-12 as 11.19 Lac ( 7,19875 M + 3,99,697 UM ) and for 2012-13 projection is 11.41 Lac (10,21,433M + 1,19,908 UM ). Where as for Non Domestic / Commercial connections for 2010-11 have been shown as 1.46 Lac ( 75,719 M + 70,124 UM ) , for 2011-12 as 1.49 Lac (105,592 M + 43,339 UM) and for 2012-2013 as 1.5 Lac ( 1,24,176 M + 26,004 UM ). The total domestic connections ( consumers) are being projected as 11.41 Lac for 2012-13 for J&K with population over 120 Lac. In case this data is to be believed the average family size in J&K is more than 10 souls per family . But it is not believable. The other inference that could be drawn is that nearly 50 % of J&K population ( families ) in J&K will be without power even by the end of 2012-13. Who will believe it ?. Let us hope the Energy Accounting System visualized by Omar Abdullah & Abdul Rahim Rather does give some relief. Earlier also promises have been made by PDD for cutting the transmission and distribution losses. Lot of scarce public resources were spent on purchase and installation of electronic meters to replace electro mechanical meters. It appears that still the department could not plug the undue T&D loss .Instead of seriously examining the real failures of the PDD officers , it has been learnt that a “second generation” meters have been purchased.
The recently installed electronic meters are now been replaced by this new generation meters. But unless the intentions would be there to plug the theft ( it would be wrong to call as high as 66% power loss as T&D loss ) the corrective measures so far taken are simply going to further load the State Exchequer with extra costs. A meter can only meter power but it can not on its own get installed on an illegal line or unmetered line. It has to be installed by a PDD functionary and watched for its operation by a PDD functionary only. But the success under the present operational culture would not be that near unless government involves some people from the civil society in assessing the departmental achievements and working out the programmes for applying the corrections. *( Daya Sagar is social activist and leading scribe on Kashmir affairs [email protected] 09419796096) |
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