05 April,2009 06:02 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
Only one tubelight out of two is switched on, a section of an area lying dark, vacant and with a non-functioning air conditioner above. This isn't out of a thriller but what you might see when you next visit a shopping mall, thanks to the hike in electricity tariffs.
Malls face the heat
With Mumbai facing a shortage of 600 Mw, shopping malls and complexes are facing the heat. They have approached the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) against a decision to shift them from a slab with a lower rate to a higher rate.
A year back, malls were paying around Rs 6 per unit, which was charged to commercial shops and outlets by the power companies. But MERC decided to hike the tariffs to Rs 11 per unit on the basis that malls and multiplexes use more but pay less.
Organisations like Inorbit Mall, Globus Stores, Hypercity Retail and Hardcastle Restaurants that run the famous chain of McDonalds are some of the aggrieved parties opposing this proposal.
Pass it on, says MERC
An official from MERC, who didn't want to be named due to the ongoing code of conduct explained, "Malls don't have to bear costs as they can pass it on to the shops inside, who then levy prices onto the end consumers."
One of the important reasons why malls and multiplexes are being charged at a higher rate is to cross-subsidise other sectors. "How can this be? We have paid nearly double our electricity bills in the last one year," said Vinay Nadkarni, CEO, Globus Stores. The multi-retail store is paying on an average, a substantial amount of Rs 14 lakh in bills every month, even after bringing down their usage by 25 per cent.
Power companies of BEST and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (RInfra) say that the decision to charge higher tariffs to shopping malls has been passed by the MERC.
