PUNJAB STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD Vs. SIEL LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in these appeals is to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowing the statutory appeals filed by the respondents in these appeals questioning the order of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (in short the 'Commission'). The determination of tariff by the Commission was the subject matter of challenge.

(2.) The High Court held that the Commission had not addressed itself to the relevant parameters and, therefore, the order suffers from infirmities. The matter was remitted to the Commission to decide the issues afresh keeping in view the observations made and after eliciting the appropriate information from the appellant-Punjab State Electricity Board (in short the 'Board') wherever it has been found the deficient on the part of the Board. Stress in these appeals, essentially is focused on various conclusions on specific issues.

(3.) The dispute relates to the period from 1.8.2002 to 31.7.2003. The annual cost requirement as per the Board was Rs.7,437.78 crores while the Commission allowed Rs.6,341.14 crores. The challenge was essentially by industrial consumers before the High Court. The dispute as noted above relate to (i) estimation of agricultural consumption and transmission and distribution loss (in short 'T&D Loss'), (ii) energy input and coal transportation, (iii) manpower requirement, (iv) investment and rate of return.