CESC officials to discuss disparity in electricity costs
Kolkata: State power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay on Wednesday said that he would hold a meeting with the CESC officials to address a disparity in the cost of electricity supplied by CESC and the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL).
While responding to a question raised by the CPI-M MLA Sujan Chakraborty in the Assembly, Chattopadhyay told the house that cost of electricity in the state is Rs 7.12 per unit, which much lesser than various other states. During his speech, the minister also said that he would take up the issue of cost difference with the CESC.
He mentioned in the House that WBSEDCL charges its customers at Rs 7.12 per unit while the CESC charges a customer Rs 7.31.
When asked about the reason for the difference in the pricing, the minister assured the House that he would hold talks with the top CESC officials in this regard.
The Opposition MLA also pointed out that CESC supplies electricity to lesser number of people than WBSEDCL and hence the transmission and distribution costs of the CESC should have been much lesser.
During his speech, Chattopadhya said that Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) fixes the cost of the electricity in the state. He also complained that coal cess has been increased and freight cost was also rising resulting in the hike of cost of power generation.
It may be mentioned here that the power minister on Tuesday accused the Centre of not issuing environmental clearances to the state to commence coal mining activities in allotted mines.
If the state had received the clearances, it would have been able to produce more coal for the captivate purposes and reduce cost power generation.
The power minister also pointed out that electricity is provided to the farmers in much cheaper rate following the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's instruction.
Farmers have to pay Rs 3.78 for consumption of every unit. He also said that the electricity bill for the farmers would be reduced up to Rs 2.42 per unit if the farmers work during night.
