The Supreme Court (SC) has observed that captive consumers are not liable to pay additional surcharge leviable under Section 42(4) of the Electricity Act, 2003.
The SC observed that Section 42(4) is liable only in the case if the state commission permits a consumer to receive electricity supply from a person other than the distribution licensee of his area of supply. For captive consumers, no such permission of the state commission is required and captive generation and distribution to captive users is permitted. The captive consumers also have to incur the expenditure and invest money for construction, maintenance and operation of a captive generating plant and dedicated transmission lines. So, they are not liable to pay the additional surcharge. The SC passed the judgment The bench while dismissing the civil appeal in Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited v. M/s. JSW Steel Limited & Ors. case