Electric shock: school bills jump under new rules
Upneet Pansare
Indian Express
Sep 07, 2009
Mumbai Till June, Guru Har Kishan High School of Santacruz had been paying between Rs 12,000 and 15,000 every month as electricity charges. July brought a shock in the form of a bill of Rs 45,000.
This was thanks to a recent order by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) under which, from July, all educational institutes have been placed under the “non residential or commercial” category. These were earlier in the LT I (residential) category; the order now places them in LT II with hospitals, dispensaries, shopping malls and cinema theatres.

Across Mumbai, electricity bills for July-August were several times higher than usual. School authorities are up in arms against the commercial billing, with many planning to approach the MERC.

“It needs to be understood that educational institutes are not being run as commercial ventures. If some are doing so, then the government should look into individual cases and implement such tariffs on them. Why should all institutions suffer?” said C Tambe, secretary of Chembur Education Society.

He pointed out that BMC schools, which teach children from lower income groups would also be covered under this category. “Ultimately, educational institutes will be forced to charge higher fees from students. Then parents are likely to protest.”

Besides, with institutes coming under the commercial category, schools will lose benefits like IT exemption, higher FSI etc., he said.

At Guru Har Kishan High School, principal Rekha Vijaykar said they received a notification from Reliance Energy Ltd informing them that educational institutes would be included in the LT II category and hence would see a change in the tariff plan. “We have written to REL and told them that we are paying under protest for the month of July. The difference in the billing is enormous,” Vijaykar added.

An MERC official refused to comment on schools’ complaints, saying that the order is self-explanatory.

The order states that even though there is the argument that schools and hospitals are not undertaking commercial activities and hence should not be considered under the commercial category, LT II actually refers to non-residential and non-industrial purposes, or consumers which have not been specified under any other category and therefore includes educational institutions.