“Truth and Politics cannot stand together”. We can find innumerable instances to verify this statement; however, it is nearly impossible to find a counterexample to falsify it. Item 4 on page 4 of its 12 pages manifesto released by Aam Adami Party before Delhi State Assembly election 2015 in which it won whooping 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi Legislative Assembly mentions that

“Electricity Bills to be reduced by half: An Aam Aadmi Party government will keep its promise of reducing electricity bills by half. A more efficient, transparent and accountable system to regulate and audit the power generation and distribution companies is the need of the hour and AAP will do everything within its command to achieve that. Discoms should purchase power from economical sources and wriggle out of expensive and unsustainable Power Purchase Agreements. AAP will take measures to provide relief from rising power bills, namely generating cheaper electricity, improving transmission efficiency, fixing billing defects and correcting meter defects.”

I picked up two previous telephone bills. One of March 2015 and other of July 2019. The comparative study of these two bills exposes the utter lies of the AAP government. The amount charged in the bill has doubled instead of getting halved. The mischief played on the public of Delhi by the Delhi Government, led by Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, can be explained by an illustration. Let Mr. A has a domestic electric connection of 6 KW and his one month (30 days) consumption is 200 unit. Before March 2015, the total billed amount for such consumption would have been Rs.1137.66 without any subsidy. For the same consumption of 200 units in June 2019, the bill charged is 2064.53 without any subsidy. A calculation is shown in the table below.

The height of the absurdity comes when your house is locked for 30 days and still bill comes of amount Rs. 1325.92/-. Is this what Mr. Arvind Kejriwal promised in his manifesto? Had he done so, I am sure; people of Delhi must have rejected him outrightly. Analysis of the different taxes imposed on electricity charges in Delhi explains the mechanism of extortions systematically put in place by this government. Take, for instance, the illogical formulae adopted for fixed charges.

The fixed charge is included in every billing cycle, irrespective of the energy consumed by the user in that billing cycle. Earlier it was used to be very nominal and very affordable. The rationale behind the abrupt increase in the fixed charge is nothing but extortion, extortion encouraged and facilitated by the government. Just for an electricity connection of 6 KVA, Mr. A is extorted Rs. 15,911.04 (approximately Rs. 16 thousand) annually. This is a large amount for a middle-class family.

Next is the Power Purchase Cost Adjustment Charge (PPAC). This is charged on both fixed charges and energy charge. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority (DERC) in its order dated 15.06.215 directed that

“It is clarified that Power Purchase Cost Adjustment Charge is a component of tariff and its application shall be in the same manner as in the case of a tariff revision i.e., it shall be applicable only on the pro-rata consumption with effect from 15/06/2015. Further, it is clarified that the above PPAC is to be levied only based on energy consumed from 16/06/2015 onwards for 9 months or till further Orders, whichever is earlier for which consumption shall be determined on a pro-rata basis. ”

Initially, it was for only 9 months. It is still being charged beyond the allowed periods of 9 months for almost over 3 years. And, what is the logic for charging this PPAC on fixed charges? The mechanism is so woven in the net of tax/charge mess that a common person fails to comprehend to raise any question.

Then comes another charge levied on the electric charge! This charge is known as Time of the Day (TOD) Surcharge. Though this is not levied on domestic electric connection, yet its name suggests a lot. Time of Day (or TOD) tariff is a tariff structure in which different rates are applicable for use of electricity at a different time of the day. It means that the cost of using one unit of electricity will be different in mornings, noon, evenings and nights.” Special TOD meter is used to measure the consumption during different time slots in a day.

And this is not the last one. There are three more taxes/charges. The next is a surcharge of 8% on all the charges and taxes discussed above. This surcharge is levied to recover past deficit incurred by the company distributing the Power in Delhi. It means, companies were in loss before 2015 and Mr. Arvind Kejriwal is recovering from Delhites to fill the coffer of BRPL, BYPL, and TPDDL. What Mr. Kejriwal advocated during the election about electricity bills was a complete untruth. He misled the people of Delhi. The data, facts, and rate of electricity suggest the same.

Besides the above charges, residents of Delhi are paying electricity tax @5% on all the charges discussed above. This tax is levied by MCD. And then the innovative surcharge invented by Mr. Kejriwal -the surcharge to pay the pension to retired employees of erstwhile DESU. This surcharge is Pension Surcharge and it is levied @3.88% on all the charges mentioned so far. This may be the first instance in the country, or possibly in the world, wherein pension for the retired employees of a company is paid directly by the subscriber of the services of the company on monthly basis.

These are the various means adopted to extort money from residents of Delhi every month. Can all the charges be combined into one on the pattern of GST to simplify it? Can the portability of electricity connection from one distributor to another be introduced on the line on portability of mobile connection? It will encourage competition and rationalise the tariff due to the competition.

Revisiting the manifesto of AAP, particularly it’s back page that contains its election symbol i.e. picture of a broom, it seems that the symbol perhaps, promised that all the promises made inside would be broomed away. It has rightly broomed away all its promises except the promise it made at last on the back page of the manifesto.