Its president, O P Sah, said that the revision of the tariff is the result of gross inefficiency of the BSEB, which has made the consumers of the state liable to pay for its deficiencies.

Sah questioned the policy of differential tariff charges on the plea of providing adequate and reliable power supply when the truth is that it is in-built in agreement between consumers and the Board that the BSEB will supply uninterrupted and quality power. Therefore, charging premium in the name of adequate and reliable supply of power is highly objectionable.

The Chamber strongly feels that industry and commerce in Bihar would suffer hugely, thereby reducing their competitiveness in comparison to neighbouring states. This will be detrimental to the overall economic growth of the state.

High establishment cost, huge transmission and distribution losses, extremely high cost of power generation from Bihar’s own power generation plants and the BSEB’s inability to check power theft are the factors attributed to rise in power tariff. This hike has adversely affected all types of consumers, whether rural or urban, domestic or commercial or industrial.

According to the Chamber chief the average hike is around 50 paise per unit. In case of commercial or industrial consumers, the hike is between 60 and 70 paise per unit whereas the hike for domestic consumers ranges between 30 and 50 paise per unit. In addition to this, the fixed charged per KW has also been substantially enhanced.

Sah also questioned the justification of levying `minimum guarantee charges' when the BSEB is unable to supply the contracted demand of about 3,500 MW by a big margin. He also termed as unjustified the fact that the Board has raised bills of fuel surcharge at 99 paise per unit for the period from December 2010 to February, 2011.

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