MUMBAI: After the introduction of smart meters, residents from South Mumbai and other parts of the island city are opposing the recent imposition of an additional security deposit in their electricity bills. Ravi Raja, former BMC opposition leader, submitted a petition to BEST on Thursday, demanding the immediate revocation of the decision to levy an additional security deposit.
Raja said he has decided to file a writ petition in the Bombay High Court to contest this additional charge. “Why are we being compelled to pay an additional deposit when the BEST undertaking already holds a deposit for our meters?” questioned a resident from Mumbadevi. Another resident from Peddar Road described the online process to pay this additional security deposit as ‘cumbersome’.
Raja mentioned that he had recently tweeted after tagging chief minister Eknath Shinde to highlight grievances from power consumers on this additional levy. “Since they have now suspended the installation of smart electricity meters for residential consumers, BEST should also rescind the imposition of the additional security deposit,” he demanded.
A BEST official clarified to TOI that the undertaking was collecting this additional security deposit under the provision of the MERC Electricity Supply Code and it had the requisite legal sanction from the regulatory commission, akin to other power utilities in the state.
Raja countered, “If the provision was passed in 2021, then why did BEST delay for three years to collect the additional security deposit?” “The electricity division already possesses substantial deposits from consumers from the past, so why is there a necessity for an extra security deposit? Moreover, the undertaking never reached out to consumers and solicited their opinions,” he emphasised.
Raja claimed that the reason was straightforward—BEST wants to collect money from electricity consumers to offset the losses of its transport division, which is incurring nearly Rs 2000 crore losses this fiscal year. “A similar method was employed in 2012 to compensate for the losses of the BEST transport division during that time and was termed TDLR (transport division loss recovery) cess in electricity bills. Following protests from citizens’ groups and political parties, the TDLR was subsequently withdrawn,” he recalled.
A BEST official said that the additional security deposit was solely for the power supply division. Sources indicated that BEST may collect around Rs 200 crore from 10.8 lakh consumers towards this additional deposit.
