Our Correspondent
Kohima | September 21
The Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has published the draft NERC (Terms and Conditions for Determination of Tariff) Regulations 2010 and it will be taken into consideration on October 7.
In regard to application for determination of the tariff, it said every year, by November 30th, every generating company and licensee shall file with the Commission, a tariff application with statements containing the expected revenues from the tariff and the charges including miscellaneous charges in the ensuing financial year, under its currently approved tariff and charges including miscellaneous charges, along with detailed explanations for assumptions made.
The Generating Companies and licensees shall submit a statement on compliance of directives issued by the Commission in its last tariff order along with formats. An application for determination of tariff shall be accompanied by information in the formats as specified in clause 4(2) for the previous year, current year and the ensuing year. The information for the previous year should be based on audited accounts and in case audited accounts are not available, audited accounts for the year immediately preceding the previous year should be filed along with un-audited accounts for the previous year. Every new licensee shall file an application with the Commission, immediately on grant of license, a tariff application along with details as stated in clause 4(2). Every new generating company shall file an application with the Commission, at least three months ahead of commencement of commercial operations. Every application for determination of tariff or for continuation for previously determined tariff shall be accompanied with tariff application fee prescribed by the Commission. All filings should be in conformity with the stipulations in the licensing, Regulations and the conditions of the license.
The transmission and distribution licensees shall include a detailed statement of voltage-wise technical and commercial losses. The voltage-wise losses shall be distributed according to the energy drawn at the voltage level. The licensees must provide plans for reducing the losses, together with the details of the investment required to achieve the planned reductions. All such plans are required to be submitted year wise, commencing with the ensuing financial year and covering at least the four subsequent years indicating the sources of fund required to execute these plans. If there is a revenue gap between the expected revenues from the currently applicable tariff and other charges including miscellaneous charges and the revenue requirement for the ensuing financial year, the generating company and the licensee include a proposal/plan as to how it proposes to bridge the revenue gap. In addition to the hard copies, the information shall necessarily be submitted in such electronic form, as the Commission may require.
The statement referred to in clause 4(2) shall be given separately for each of the separate businesses of the licensee and for each of the separate businesses of the generating company. In case the licensee carries on any business or services other than those licensed under the Act, the licensee shall give separate revenue statements, balance sheet and cash-flow statement together with such details as the Commission may require in respect of such businesses or services. The Commission may seek clarification and additional information on the application, and the generating company and licensee shall provide the clarifications and additional information within the date stipulated by the Commission. The generating companies and licensees shall intimate the particulars of their officers who would provide the desired information and communicate with the Commission for clarification etc., if any. Any delay/ non-submission of the tariff application/ information as above may attract penalty / fines as per the relevant provisions of the Act. In case the generating company or the licensee does not submit the application for determination of tariff within the time allowed by the Commission, the Commission may consider taking up the matter suo-moto.
After the Commission is provided with the clarifications, the generating company or the licensee shall publish the summary of the proposals, as approved by the Commission for publication, highlighting the salient features for the application, calling for objections/ suggestions from the stake holders and other interested parties in at least two local newspapers, in English language, having wide circulation in its area of operation.
The applicant shall also submit within 7 days of publication of the notice an affidavit to the Commission with details of the notice and also file copies of the newspapers wherein notice has been published. The tariff application shall be available for sale at the Commission’s office and such offices of the generating companies and the licensees as may be directed by the Commission. The consumers should also be provided the facility of procuring of the document(s) by post if their request is accompanied by a demand draft of the appropriate denomination. The document should be posted at the licensee’s website in downloadable format for easy accessibility by all stakeholders.
Admission of petitions from the parties other than those directly affected by the tariff shall be at the discretion of the Commission. The Commission shall determine tariff in accordance with the provisions and objectives of the Act, the Conduct of Business Regulations and any other prevalent policies or Regulations, as the case may be. The Commission shall within seven days of making the order send a copy of the order to the state government, concerned generating company and the licensee and also post the same in its website. Meanwhile, copies of the draft regulations have been made available in the office of NERC, Old MLA Hostel Complex, Kohima and also in the office of the Chief Engineer (Power), Nagaland Kohima. The same can be seen by any interested person during office hours on any working day. The draft regulations are also available at the NERC website: www.nerg.org.in.
