The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission has allowed the Kerala State Electricity Board to impose a fuel surcharge of 25 paise a unit on consumer bills for a period of six months from August 1.

The fuel surcharge shall be applicable to consumers of all licensees except domestic consumers having consumption not more than 20 units a month and connected load of less than or equal to 500W.

This is in response to a KSEB petition for permission to recover an additional financial liability of INR 53.69 crore for the period from October to December 2010. The KSEB had filed another petition for recovering the difference in fuel cost for the period from January 2011 to March 2011 for an amount of INR 107.54 crore.

As against the total INR 161.23 crore thus proposed, the commission has approved INR 181.14 crore, including INR 30.85 crore due for previous quarters as fuel surcharge.

The order said that the surcharge shall be effective for consumption from August 1 for next six months or till an amount of INR 181.14 crore is recovered, whichever is earlier.

As soon as INR 181.14 crore is recovered, KSEB shall inform the Commission promptly, upon which it shall terminate the collection of fuel surcharge by all licensees.

The commission is of the view that the reporting of fuel cost of own stations has to be verified since the KSEB has stated that no audit process has been involved before filing the estimates.

Accordingly, the commission has decided to engage an in house audit team to verify the procedures of reporting fuel cost estimates. A final decision on the matter will be taken based on the report of the audit team.

(Sourced from BL)