ECONOMY-INDIA:
Rich to Pay More for Water, Electricity
Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jun 3 (IPS) - Are households in India that have three Mercedes
cars parked in the driveway expected to pay more for electricity and water
supplies than people who live in the slums?
Yes, says Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi state that has a
population of 14 million people and is host to the national capital, New
Delhi.
Dikshit, who belongs to the Congress Party that now leads India's ruling
coalition, is among the political leaders who believe that the party's
spectacular showing in the just concluded April and May parliamentary
elections is the result of the increasingly rare concern the party and its
communist backers have shown for distributive justice.
''If you can afford three Mercedes cars, you can certainly afford to pay
more for power and water,'' Dikshit said in offering up the rationale for
the new Unit Area Method (UAM) of computing electricity bills that is to
come into force this month. The new method involves charging higher power
tariffs for those who live in more affluent areas of the city.
Though the new power tariff structure is yet to be announced, Delhi's
residents, whose living standards are comparable to any world capital's,
are already up in arms at the prospect of having to pay more per unit of
power than their less fortunate compatriots.
Vijender Gupta, councillor and member of the opposition right-wing
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said that while property taxes can be
calculated according to property values and civic amenities, these could
not be extended to power tariffs.
''Electricity tariffs are always based on the consumption pattern of the
user. The proposed tariff structure is bound to be opposed by every
resident,'' Gupta told IPS.
Gupta pointed to existing laws say that no ''undue preference'' can be
shown to any consumer of electricity besides that based on load factor,
voltage, total consumption, and the use to which electricity is put, rather
than the particular area to which it is delivered.
For her part, Dikshit admits that zoning Delhi into affluent and not so
affluent categories for power billing may not be ''absolutely correct''.
Still, she believes that it is one way to fulfill her government's
''commitment to provide better power, water, parking and other facilities
for everybody''.
If successful, Dikshit may end up offering a model for the rest of the
country to follow. This comes at a time when massive reforms are underway
in the power sector, which is on the verge of collapse from decades of
corruption and mismanagement that have favoured the affluent and the
influential.
Two years ago, Delhi state was compelled to privatise power distribution
in Delhi as a means of tackling massive power thefts that cause more than
50 percent of electricity to vanish into thin air.
Surveys carried out by the now defunct Delhi Vidyut (electricity) Board
before distribution was handed over to private companies showed that most
of the power pilferage was happening at upmarket addresses - rather than
in less affluent areas or in the slums.
In many cases, businesses such as shops and small industries were found
siphoning large amounts of power, and bribing metre readers and officials
to ensure that their bills represented a fraction of actual consumption.
Said Probir Purkayastha, a power expert at the Delhi Science Forum:
''Commercial establishments are the main culprits and they have joined a
section of the affluent middle class in stealing power for airconditioners
and geysers.''
Such was the state of affairs that private companies had to be offered
substantial inducements and concessions before they would step into the
scene and pay for actual usage.
Indeed, the first attempts by the private companies to crack down on
pilferage met with massive resistance from the government, led by the
Bharatiya Janata Party that was in power at the centre at the time until
its surprise defeat in the April and May elections.
In February, India's Supreme Court had to order the central government
to delegate powers to Dikshit's administration and enable it to take action
against people who were stealing power by tampering with metres or
colluding with metre readers.
Now with the Congress Party in power at both the centre and state levels
and fired up by a rediscovered pro-people fervour, affluent consumers find
themselves paying more for power - rather than less or even none at all.
(END/IPS/AP/DV/IF/RDR/JS/04) (END/2004)
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