BackCheap power: Can Maharashtra go the Delhi way?
Maharashtra sets up panel for free power in Mumbai, but CM Prithviraj Chavan denies it has anything to do with AAP's similar move in Delhi
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Mumbai: Last week, Congress Member of Parliament from north Mumbai, Sanjay Nirupam, demanded that power tariff for customers in Mumbai consuming fewer than 500 units a month be cut by half, and said his party would launch an agitation if the government, also led by the Congress, didn’t act on this demand.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan also played to the gallery and told the media that the state government would indeed consider the issue of rate reduction, but not because of the Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) decision to reduce the power tariff in Delhi. He even appointed a committee under state industry minister Narayan Rane to look into issue.
It seems both Chavan and Nirupam had not only taken inspiration from the AAP’s manifesto for the Delhi election but also from the 2004 election promise of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance in the state. The duo managed to ride to victory in the assembly election on the popular promise of free electricity to the agriculture sector.
Just before the 2004 assembly election, then Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had announced that if the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine was voted to power, they would provide free electricity to the agricultural sector. As the elections were yet to be announced, the model code of conduct had not come into place then.
Taking the wind out of Thackeray’s sail, then Congress chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde rushed to announce free power to the agriculture sector. As a token of offering free power, bills were sent to farmers indicating no cost for them.
After the Congress-NCP government returned to power in the state, the decision was reversed by the next chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who replaced Shinde.
Defending the decision to renege on the election promise, Deshmukh casually remarked, “Such promises are made during election season."
In November 2013, the Maharashtra government set up a committee under the chairmanship of Rane after repeated complaints from the industry about the high tariff in the state for industrial consumers when compared with neighbouring states.
Initially, the Rane committee’s mandate was limited to issue of tariff for industrial consumers, but it was subsequently asked to look into residential consumers, too.
The committee had a meeting last week with the chief minister, when it was discussed that if the state decides to give a 10% subsidy to around 8.4 million consumers of Mahavitaran Ltd, the state power distribution company that supplies power to Maharashtra barring Mumbai, the state government would have to pay around ₹ 2,000 crore from its coffers.
A senior official from one of the two private utilities that supply power to Mumbai said if the state government decides to give 50% subsidy to Mumbai consumers on the lines of Delhi, it would have to shell out another ₹ 1,700 crore.
The NCP has already opposed the idea of giving subsidy to private utilities like Tata Power Co. Ltd and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.
In a slowing economy, the Maharashtra government is struggling to meet its tax collection target of ₹ 1.60 trillion for fiscal 2014. By the end of December, the state could meet only around 60% of its annual targets for collections of stamp duty and registration, transport, excise and sales tax.
Normally by this period, these departments achieve more than 70% of their annual targets. Considering the strained finances of the state government, one wonders how much burden it can take to supply cheaper power to consumers.
Common sense so uncommon
After Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s intervention, the Maharashtra government last week announced its decision to accept the recommendations of the J.A. Patil panel on the Adarsh housing scam, but only partially.
While action will be taken against senior state government officials for breach of service conduct rules, the politicians will be spared, except for former chief minister Ashok Chavan, as they were not involved in any quid pro quo transaction.
The state government’s decision has given immunity to former chief ministers, including current Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil and the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, besides two ministers in the present state cabinet—water resource minister Sunil Tatkare and higher education minister Rajesh Tope.
The state government also announced that the memberships of 25 people of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society will be cancelled and allotment of flats to another 22 members of Adarsh will be cancelled as they were holding flats on behalf of others.
Had the state government announced all these measures on 20 December when it tabled the report in the assembly, it would not have faced the flak from media and opposition parties. The issue would have blown over in a few days. But by rejecting the report outright, the state government kept the issue alive and forced Rahul Gandhi to intervene. That kept the issue alive for another week till the state government decided to partially accept it.
The decision to spare politician will ensure bad press again for a few more days.
The whole episode smacks of one thing—the Congress leadership in the state is losing political wisdom. Not a good sign when next state elections are less than a year away.
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