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Judgment
HEARD learned Counsel for the parties and also the revision petitioner in person. This revision petition has been filed by the complainant which is an Ice -cream Factory and is a consumer of the respondents having an electrical connection with the connected load of 33.770 KV for running the ice -cream factory. The respondent -Electricity Board (hereinafter referred to as Board) issued a bill dated 10.8.2000 pertaining to the electricity consumed from 29.6.2000 to 28.7.2000 in respect of 1890 units. The total payable amount was Rs. 49,787 out of which an amount of Rs. 45,290 was shown as arrears. The complainant approached the respondent - Board for the amendment of the bill where arrears were shown. The Board allowed him to deposit Rs. 5,747 and issued a bill on 17.11.2000 and in the said bill the Board included Rs. 45,290 as arrears. Efforts made by the complainant to convince the Board that the bill was wrong, failed. Hence he filed a complaint before the District Forum.
THE District Forum quashed the disputed bill and directed to refund the amount deposited against the disputed demand along with interest @ 12% p.a. from the date of deposit till date of refund.
AGGRIEVED by the order of the District Forum, the Board filed an appeal before the State Commission, Punjab. The State Commission allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the District Forum. Dissatisfied by the order of the State Commission, the complainant filed this revision petition before us. The complainant showed us the Circular No. 21/97 of the Board. The relevant extract of the Circular reads as follows: "CC No. 21/97
Issued vide Memo No. 19970/20720/C/T/2Rev/lnd/L Sub : Increase of Monthly Minimum Charges in respect of Ice Factories and Cold Storages.
In continuation to this office CC No. 77/95 dated 13.9.1995 it has been decided by the Board to include Ice Candies also for levy of higher rate of Monthly Minimum Charges due to higher utilization factor in summer months.
Changes in respect of Ice Factories, Ice Candies and Cold Storage as under -
(a) For Ice Factories and Ice (i) Rs. 400 KW or part Candies under the Large, thereof for the months Medium and small power from April to July. industrial category (ii) As per rates applicable to General Industry for remaining 8 months of the year. (b) For cold Storages (i) Rs. 300 KW or part thereof for the months from April to July. (ii) As per rates applicable to General industry for remaining 8 months of the year.
As the months of April and May are already over it has been decided to levy the above rate of Monthly Minimum Charges from 1.6.1997 instead of 1.4.1997 during the calendar year 1997. For the calendar year 1998 and onwards the higher rates of Monthly Minimum Charges shall be levied from April to July every year till these are revised by the Hotel."
THE main issue raised by the petitioner as well as the Counsel for the petitioner before us is that they are neither an Ice Candy Factory nor ice manufacturing factory. Initially, in the Circular, the word ice cream'' is not mentioned. Hence they should be charged at domestic rate.
LEARNED Counsel for the respondent - Board submitted that there is no dispute that it is a commercial venture. Counsel for the respondent drew our attention to the Circular dated 11.7.2006, issued by the PSEB, wherein it is mentioned that M/s. Creamica Ice Cream Factory may be charged MMC (Monthly Minimum Charges) as applicable to ice -cream candy manufacturing units. Hence, other ice cream factories are to be treated as similar to ice -candy units and the tariff applicable to the ice candy units is also applicable to the ice -cream manufacturing units.
LEARNED Counsel for the petitioner argued that this is only a Circular and not a judgment and was not filed before the State Commission.
IT is clear that during the peak summer season, the Electricity Board has decided to charge Rs. 400 KW or part thereof for the months of April to July for ice factories, ice candy manufacturing units under large, medium and small power industrial category and for the remaining eight months, as per the rates applicable to the general industry. However, for the cold stages, the rates would be applicable at Rs. 300 KW. It is not the case of the complainant/petitioner that he is manufacturing ice -creams for domestic use. Admittedly, he has got the connected load of Rs. 33.770 KW for the ice -cream factory which is an industrial venture. Ice -cream manufacturing is similar to manufacturing of ice and ice candies. Further, there is another Circular of the Board which clarifies that ice -cream factory should be charged as per the rates applicable to the ice candies. The petitioner/complainant has not provided any proof that other ice -cream factories are not charged the same rates which is made applicable to him. Therefore, we do not see any material irregularity or jurisdictional error in the orders passed by the Fora below warranting our intervention. Therefore, this revision petition is dismissed. However, there shall be no order as to cost. R.P. dismissed.