Mumbai: Farmers in the state may now get more accurate electricity bills as the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC)  is appointing an agency to survey the season-wise and region-wise crop patterns in Maharashtra. 

Currently, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) charges average bill on usage of electricity of agricultural pumps. This exercise will help get accurate assessment of agricultural consumption.
MERC Member Mukesh Khullar said soon the MERC will appoint a third-party agency to obtain information about exact consumption. “In one year, the agency will collect the required information,” he said.

“In Maharashtra the crop pattern is not the same. The agency will collect the data about the crops and quantity of electricity needed to fetch required water for the crop. After going through the data, we will get nearly accurate consumption of electricity for agricultural pumps,” said Khullar. 

He was speaking at an interactive session organised by the Mumbai Press Club. When asked about the need for another committee to conduct the same study, which was done by MSEDCL in the past on the directives of the MERC through an expert committee of IIT Bombay, Khullar said, “The MSEDCL has not submitted the report yet. Nonetheless, we felt that there is a need to commission a study under the aegis of the MERC.”