The people of Assam are likely to get a respite in the current summer season as a power tariff is unlikely with the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) and its subsidiary companies are yet to place its demands to the Assam State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ASERC) and as per the regulations, the Commission will have to give its orders within 120 days from the date of placing of the demands. Official sources told The Assam Tribune that ideally, the ASEB and its subsidiary companies are to submit its demands for power tariff hike by the end of December so that the new rates can become effective from April, but normally, the demands are not placed on time and this year the same are yet to be placed. Sources pointed out that the failure of the ASEB and its subsidiary companies to finalize its accounts might have delayed the process and the Commission has given time till the end of this month to submit the demands. Even if the ASEB manages to submit the demands by the end of this month, the Commission will have time till the end of October to give its orders and as normally retrospective effect on power tariff is not given, the electricity consumers of the State would be able to survive the summer season without tariff hike. It may be mentioned here that last year, the power tariff hike came into effect in the month of July. Sources said that last year, the ASEB sought a power tariff hike of 22 percent citing various reasons, but the Commission allowed a hike of only 1.1 percent considering various aspects. Sources said that the ASEB had claimed that it had to spend an additional amount of more than Rs 220 crore in the previous year as it was forced to buy additional power from other sources during the 33rd National Games, while, draoght like situation in the previous year resulted in severe shortage of power forcing the Board to procure power from different sources at higher prices. But in order to reduce the burden on the consumers, the Commission allowed only 1.1 percent hike and asked the ASEB to realise the losses in three years. It may be mentioned here that the tariff hike allowed by the Regulatory Commission is normally much lower than the demand by the Board. According to records available, in the year 2005-06, the ASEB placed a demand for 26.16 percent tariff hike, but the Commission allowed a hike of 3.66 percent, while, in the next year, the Commission allowed a hike of 3.27 percent against a demand for 22 percent hike. Sources revealed that after receiving the demands from the ASEB and its subsidiary companies, the Regulatory Commission would invite petitions from the consumers and would go for public hearing on the petitions. The Commission would also go through the financial statements of the ASEB and subsidiary companies before finalizing the tariff. However, sources pointed out that the lack of awareness of the electricity consumers of Assam comes to the fore every year as apart from the commercial users and different organizations of the traders and entrepreneurs, only a handful of domestic consumers submit petitions to the Commission on the basis of the demands placed by the Electricity Board. Sources also pointed out that another major problem in Assam is that because of slow pace of industrialization, the number of domestic consumers is much more than the commercial consumers. Citing one example, sources said that in Gujarat, only 15 percent electricity is consumed by domestic consumers, while, in Assam, more than 40 percent of power is consumed by domestic consumers, which is a major problem for the ASEB in revenue generation as the tariff for the commercial consumers is much higher than the tariff paid by the domestic consumers. Meanwhile, the failure of the State Government to appoint the Chairman of the Regulatory Commission on time also affected its functioning to some extent. The former chairman of the Commission, PK Bora retired in July last year and only on June 6 this year, former CMD of the NEEPCO, Jayanta Barkakati has joined as the Chairman of the Commission, which had to function