O J's Corner : Reflections

Consumer is the king,
Right of choice is his creed

When consumer is the king, his fiefdom should have the right of choice. Nothing should be thrust upon him by monopolies. In other words, consumer comfort cannot be ensured when only a single player calls the shot. There should be different options for him to enjoy a service.

Which means there should be many service-providers for any commodity from which the consumer can choose the brand he likes.

For long, India had a closed mind about allowing many service-providers. Telecom, television and many other sectors had only single players. These were a hard-nut-to-crack for ordinary consumers.

Think of the gamut of services provided by various players in the field of telecommunication now. Telephone user can now choose from any of the numerous service providers. That these service-providers are competing with each other is good for the consumer who would get better services at lesser cost. Long-distance telephone call rates, for national and international destinations, have become dead cheap compared to earlier times.

Television channels are aplenty for the subscriber to choose programmes that he wants to enjoy. In the wake of private channels beaming variety of programmes, Doordarshan also had to enhance quality and content.

These are all good, but there is one crucial sector where the consumer feels trapped. This is the power sector. Every human being has to get electricity for his daily needs. One hour of power failure creates a ricocheting effect for the problem it creates.

But we have only State-provided power. The State generates power the way it wants. It decides the tariff at its convenience. The consumer has no say in the generation, transmission, and supply. Neither has he a say in tariff determination.

This should go at one time or the other. The agency which provides power should be held responsible for power failure and distribution flaws. At one time or the other, private players have to come into the picture. The sooner the better.

When there are several agencies to generate or procure and supply power, there would be competition resulting in better quality of services. Electricity forms part of the basic services essential to human beings just like they need food, clothing and shelter.

Considering the magnitude of consumers of Kerala State Electricity Board, which is the only agency operating in the power sector, people cannot expect competition and enhanced quality. KSEB has to cater to the needs of 82 lakh power consumers. The State hardly has a household which is not electrified.

It is a miracle that the people get this much of services from a monolith, which has to handle 82 lakh consumers and thousands of workers. Other State-owned services are not this much monopolistic. For example, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation operates services in the State which has private bus services as well.

Power sector is the key sector where the consumer has no say, no choice and no quality discrimination. The Board proposes and it disposes. The consumer is a mute witness.

Let more players be activated in the State so that various agents would compete with each other to corner the patronage of the consumer who would then get quality service at less cost.