Said Crisil in a press release issued on Wednesday: "The setting up of regulatory commissions in several states has been a welcome feature that is expected to make the power sector more efficient. The regulatory commissions are primarily conceived as tariff setting bodies that are expected to play a balancing act where the interests of all stakeholders are to be taken into account". Crisil is of the opinion that the setting up of regulatory commissions has exposed power utilities to higher regulatory risks. This assumes greater significance in view of the fact that power utilities in India are operationally not very efficient. The regulatory commission are expected to award tariff revisions after giving due consideration to efficiency parameters. The power utility companies in Maharashtra and Orissa have been granted only marginal tariff increases along with stipulations to reduce high level of transmission and distributions.Noted Crisil: "The regulatory commissions factor the cost of power purchase todetermine the extent of the tariff hike based upon the concept of merit order dispatch.