In December 1994, Amma® starts buidling a hospital called Amrita Insitute of medical Science and needs power supply to do so. The Board provides an electricity connection for a contract demand of 138 kVA. The energy supply is classified under tariff category High Tension-II Non-Industrial/Non-commercial :
"the supply to the petitioner at the AIMS was effected at HT-II in December 1994 for construction purposes. The supply was continued under the same category since HT supply for all hospitals, charitable institutions"
Suddenly in August 1999, the Board switches the tariff category to High Tension-IV-Commercial without noticing Amma®. We guess that the price of electricity must be more expensive but hey! AIMS power consumption is also significant. It reaches 1771 kVA when the initial contract was on 138. According to KSEB estimations, AIMS devices can potentially peak at 8114 kVA.
Commercial institutions must be charged on the basis of commercial tariff category, it's logical. But of course Amma® files a petition against KSEB. The reason why the Board changed the tariff category is thus explained :
"According to the petitioner, in August 1999, the tariff classification of the supply was unilaterally changed to HT-IV-Commercial by the KSEB on the premise that the AIMS for which the electricity supply was given and which was managed by the petitioner was a private hospital ... the private medical colleges and hospitals attached thereto are institutions working on commercial basis"
What is Amma®'s reply? The first argument is legitimate. The tariff category has been changed by surprise, it is not legal. But the second argument is questionable :
"AIMS is one of the educational institutions forming part of the deemed university ... The petitioner has therefore pleaded for categorizing the Institute under HT-II-Non-Industrial/Non-commercial, for tariff purposes, as it is a part of an Educational Institution affiliated to a University"
Let's notice a very important detail here. Amma® doesn't claim that AIMS is a charitable hospital. Instead, the organization wants AIMS to be charged like an educational institution. So they acknowledge that it is a private profitable institution. It's about a private profitable institution bargaining to not pay what it actually consumes.
KSEB comes forward with a fair solution :
"the electricity tariff applicable to Government medical colleges and hospitals cannot be extended to private medical colleges and hospitals attached thereto. The Board further stated that separate tariff of HT-II for medical college and HT-IV Tariff for hospital can be considered if the consumer availed separate service connections for the stated purposes"
But Amma® is more clever than that and provides all necessary consumption diagrams to prove that the electric connections of the hospital and the college cannot be separated. That's when the commission finds a weird way out :
"80% of the energy consumption and demand could be attributed to clinical activities and the remaining 20% to colleges, hostels etc ... Accordingly, 60% of the energy consumption and demand of the Institute should be classified under Tariff category HT-II-Non-Industrial/Non-Commercial and the balance 40% classified under Tariff category HT-IV-Commercial"80% of the electricity is used for commercial purpose therefore 40% must be charged under Commercial category?
In other words :
20% of the electricity is used for educational purpose therefore 60% must be charged under Non-Commercial category?
What for a surprise! What for a hard-to-understand calculation! It's not over :
"This may be implemented with effect from February, 2003 when the Institute became a full fledged educational Institution"The decision was taken in August 2003. Does it mean that in addition to getting screwed, KSEB had to reimburse 7 months of bills to Amma®?
At least this strange solution proves that from December 1994 to February 2003, AIMS was a full commercial establishment. Then it became part of an educational institution, therefore it has never been labelled as "charitable" by the Indian government.
This drama unfolded in 2003, we are in 2014. How many of her institutions are considered as charitable or educational by now? Is Amrita TV also educational? Why not? Amma® owns a media school so maybe the TV channel cannot be separated from that educational institution. What about AEPL's subsidiaries? Maybe the ayurvedic shop cannot be separated from the ayurvedic school. She relentlessly teaches us that unity is the key to world peace. So let's humbly follow her advice and never tear business apart from education, for our lives to thrive in the abode of greed.