MIAL complains to MERC about R-Infra's charges

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has complained to the state electricity regulator that Reliance Infra was forcing it to cross subsidise its customers even after MIAL switched to Tata Power Company for power supply. The company has argued that R-Infra cannot make such a demand and it is legally not tenable.

During a public hearing before Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission on Saturday, MIAL said that since it was availing electricity from the Tata Power by utilising the wire network of R-Infra, the latter was forcing it to cross subsidise its customers, though it is no longer the customer of R-Infra. "Any attempt to load the change-over consumers with the purported cross-subsidy losses, which it may incur due to migration of its subsidising consumers effectively fetters the right of the consumers to exercise their choice and make them captive consumers of R-Infra, whose interest are then necessarily aligned to that of R-Infra," MIAL argued.

It also said that no cross subsidy charge could be levied upon MIAL to meet the current level of cross subsidy in the utility's license area. "Changeover consumers such as MIAL are already making payments towards tariff determined for Tata Power consumers, which includes the gross subsidy element determined by MERC at the time of fixing the tariff for Tata Power consumers," a lawyer representing MIAL said during the hearing.