“The documents were supposed to be submitted by August 10th, according to a commission-directive. But three days earlier, on August 7th, the commission took action ,” explains the official who wishes not to reveal his identity.

N. Rajendran, a retired Government servant had inquired into the functioning of KSEB by asking 26 questions through the provisions of the Right to Information Act. “The finances of KSEB are not transparent,” he says. “According to the statistics available in the Regulatory Commision’s website, the board. is not facing a financial crisis as claimed. Besides, the board computes its revenues through different quantities - ARR (Accumulated Revenue Recovery) and ERC (Expected Revenue from Charges) which are not accurate. And KSEB’s revenues from peak hour excess-electricity sales are not included in any of the reports,” he alleges. “In this context, I think it’s a crime to impose surcharges on citizens, citing impossible reasons,” he adds.

Citizens are concerned about increase in power tariffs. “Any hike, even if it’s  25 paise per unit, would be astronomical to me in the long run,” exclaims Sundaram, an entrepreneur who runs a small manufacturing unit. “Electricity bills are my biggest expenditure and I’ve only started up. If prices continue to shoot up,  I’ll have no option but to shut shop,” he laments. Vasanthy, a housewife has similar concerns. “The logic beyond this price-hike goes way beyond our heads. But in the end, it’s us householders who feel the pinch,” she says.

As long as the bulk of our electricity demands are met by costly, polluting thermal power sources, the situation shall only continue to devolve.

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