The Central discom has not refunded Fuel Surcharge Adjustment charges collected in the month of July, despite a High Court order. Meanwhile, the final hearing for FSA claims for the year 2010-11 is to be held before this weekend. This time, it is most likely to be approved, as the claims were filed on time by the discoms. If the FSA claims are approved, consumers are expected to get bills inflated by Rs 300-Rs 500 for households consuming up to 150-200 units per month.
Meanwhile, the AP discoms that have made fresh FSA claims of Rs 2,165 crore for the first quarter of the financial year 2012-2013, are banking on the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regula-tory Commission to bail them out of the financial crisis by accepting the proposal, along with the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 proposals of Rs 8,023 crore. The Commission had earlier rejected the FSA claims for the year 2008-2009 and the High Court had stayed the FSA collection from consumers after a month of it being passed.
As FSA has already been spent by the discoms in the previous years, if they are not recovered, the discoms will sink into deeper financial crisis. While the public hearings on FSA claims for the years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 have been completed and the decision is expected within the next fortnight, the filing of fresh FSA claims would also mean that all the three FSA claims, once approved, will be passed on to the consumers this year and will be spread over a period of 12 months from the date of approval by the regulatory commission.
“The FSA amount, which has already been deducted, will be adjusted over the next two months. We are also awaiting a decision on FSA claims for the years 2010-2011 very soon. The utilities have already incurred a loss of over Rs 1,500 crore in FSA claims for years 2008-09 and 2009-10, while Rs 8,000 crore FSA claims are yet to be approved by the APERC. The FSA claims were not filed on time in the last two years, but for the years 2010-11 onwards, claims were made on time and will most likely be approved by the APERC,” said a senior official.