Mangaluru: Mangaluru Electricity Supply Company (Mescom) urged the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to pass a suitable order to bridge the Rs 83.1 crore revenue deficit, based on its annual performance review (APR). KERC chairman P Ravi Kumar, during the public hearing held on Wednesday, said that the commission will examine the 11 paise per unit hike proposed by Mescom as part of the true-up costs. “We will examine how much needs to be passed on,” he said. The commission already determined the tariffs for FY 2025-26 to FY 2027-28.Mescom managing director R Jayakumar said that for the year 2024-25, KERC approved power purchase worth Rs 3,957.6 crore. The proposed APR purchase stood at Rs 4,472.9 crore. The approved expenditure was Rs 5,291.3 crore, against Mescom’s actual expenditure of Rs 5,751.2 crore. Further, the annual revenue requirement (ARR) approved was Rs 5,095.8 crore, and the APR proposal recorded Rs 5,913.5 crore, creating a revenue deficit of Rs 83.1 crore. Power purchase during the year increased due to a rise in demand. Domestic consumption increased to 1,950.5 million units, commercial consumption to 538.5 million units, and IP sets consumption to 2,132.1 million units. In HT consumption, commercial usage rose to 239.1 million units, while consumption by hospitals and educational institutions reached 163.5 million units. MSEZ CEO Suryanarayana V said that any upward revision in Mescom’s power purchase cost, an uncontrollable cost, should be fully recovered from all consumers by appropriately adjusting the differential cost against the revenue surplus. The resultant APR revenue surplus or deficit may be refunded or recovered through a per-unit adjustment in FY 2026–27, he suggested.
