Cuttack, June 29: The All-Orissa Steel Federation (AOSF) has moved the Orissa High Court for modification of the power tariff announced by Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) for 2011-12, saying “the tariff will not be sustained” as a consequence of an order passed by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, New Delhi.

“The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity has given directions to OERC not only to modify the tariff for 2010-11, but has also given direction to formulate and modify the power tariff to be determined for future years including 2011-12,” the federation said in an intervention petition.

The intervention petition was filed in connection with the PIL filed by Keonjhar Navanirman Parishad, challenging OERC’s order enhancing tariff of electricity for 2011- 2012 from April 1.

After issuing a stay order on it on March 31, the high court, in a modified order on June 22, allowed distribution companies to collect revised tariff from commercial and industrial consumers, but extended the stay order for domestic consumers.

Constituting of manufacturers of steel items at different stages, the federation pointed out that the “net effect of the Appellate Tribunal will be that the power tariff announced by OERC has to be modified and in that event the power tariff announced in the present form will not be sustained and it has to be done afresh”.

“Besides, as the consequence of the order passed by the Appellate Tribunal the power tariff announced by OERC for consumers of all categories will be substantially reduced,” the intervention petition said.

The Appellate Tribunal order referred to was passed by the bench of Justice P.S. Dutta (judicial member) and Rakesh Nath (technical member) on May 30 while remanding to OERC an appeal filed against 2010-11 tariff order.

OERC had, on June 27, filed a petition seeking discontinuance of the interim order imposing restriction on collection of enhanced tariff from domestic consumers.

However, the division bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice B.K. Mishra today extended the stay order till July 5 after a brief hearing and fixed the date for further hearing on the case.

OERC, in its petition, had expressed apprehensions that the state government may consider withdrawing the subsidy of Rs 108 crores if the interim stay continues as the consumers were paying at the pre-revised rate of 140 paise per unit, which is lower than the government subsidised rate of 200 paise per unit.

The advanced subsidy of Rs 108 crores had enabled the OERC to order a rebate of 150 paise per unit for domestic consumers in the consumption slab of 51-100 units per month.

The stay order since March 31 had already resulted in accumulated under-recovery of Rs 353.57 crore at the rate of Rs 117.79 crore per month from consumers and the “present interim stay order now accumulates under-recovery of Rs 18.6 crores per month so long as it continues”.

“In the long term perspective, the commission will face insurmountable difficulties in tariff setting for the current and subsequent years,” the petition said.