Mumbai, July 15 (IANS) The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) Wednesday stayed its June order permitting Reliance Infrastructure to hike power tariff charges for various categories of domestic and commercial users.
The order passed by MERC panel comprising chairman V.P. Raja and members A. Velayutham and S.B. Kulkarni, will provide relief to the 2.7 million consumers of Reliance Infra, who will now pay their bills at the old rates till further orders.

The ruling came Wednesday evening in a matter filed by the Maharashtra government directing MERC to probe whether Reliance Infra had imposed any avoidable burden on consumers.

The state move, in the form of a letter by Energy Minister Sunil Tatkare, came in the wake of agitations by consumers and political parties against the power tariff hike last month.

Tatkare had directed MERC to take appropriate steps relating to the government’s policy with 15 days to protect consumers’ interest in a monopoly situation and to ensure that no unreasonable and unjustified bills were collected during the intervening period when the regulator’s investigation was on.

In its order Wednesday, MERC said that “since the Commission needs to undertake a detailed investigation on metering, power purchase expenses and transactions undertaken by Reliance Infra, as well as capital expenditure schemes, the tariff increase as approved by the Commission for the consumers in the earlier order on tariff hike will be stayed till the Commission issues further orders.”

BSE | NSE | Investors wealth jumps by Rs 4,000 billion within seconds

Investors wealth soared by a whopping Rs 4,000 billion within seconds of opening of trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today, as the markets were elated at the decisive win of the ruling UPA Government in the general elections.

With today`s upper circuit, the Sensex crossed the 13,000 milestone again. It is for the first time that the Sensex has hit the upper circuit of 10%.

The total investors` wealth, measured in terms of combined market capitalization of all the listed companies, has increased by over Rs 4,084.11 billion in the opening trade to Rs 42,153.54 billion.

The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex zoomed 1,305.97 points at 13,479.39, hitting the upper circuit within seconds of opening of trade, following which trading was halted for two hours.

Ashika Stock Brokers Research Head Paras Bothra said `the buying spree is likely to continue after the market reopens and may touch another circuit limit`.

He further said `very low volumes were traded as most investors could not engage in any buying activity as the markets hit its upper circuit within seconds`.

The combined market capitalization of the 30-blue chip stocks rose to Rs 20,335.64 billion today from Rs 18,368.41 billion at the end of trade on Friday.

Among the Sensex companies Reliance Communication, Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and Jaiprakash Associates were among the major gainers with their stock prices surging between 18% and 20%.

Source:

http://buzzingstock.in/market-news/investors-wealth-jumps-by-rs-4000-billion-within-seconds/