Basak was in his elements. This is what he had to say: "First of all it is not correct to say that Enron's rate of Rs 4.10 paise per kw/h. The tariff is expected to be around Rs 3.06 paise-Rs 3.10 paise. It will vary on a month-to-month basis depending on our ability to despatch them i.e., in the month of June, their were rains and our demand was low and we did not pay them for the power taken from them between October 98 and May 99. So the accumulated bills came, which we paid. If we divide the energy which we received for the month of June with the money paid, the rate becomes veryhigh. Now the rains have taken a break, and the demand has shot up from 8,500 it has reached about 10,200 MW today. The rate will be below Rs 3.10 paise and inspite of this we have a shortage of power. We had to resort to load shedding. The morning load-shedding was about 100 MW and evening load-shedding was about 700-800 MW. And despite Dabhol there is shortage. And we have taken a lot of power from Tatas yesterday and even today we are going to take."

"Now coming to Tatas, as all of you know, that Tatas are supposed to sell power to Mumbai area. They are not there to sell power to MSEB. In fact, it is the other way round. The agreement is that whenever there is a shortage in the Greater Mumbai area, MSEB will give them power. And that is what we do. There is an agreement for that. Tatas pay us for this stand-by arrangement. That is why you don't ever have load-shedding in Greater Mumbai. Have you ever thought there is no load-shedding in Mumbai? Why there is no Shut-down in the Tata power stations? Thereis no load-shedding because we are there at the back (Laughter and clapping in the audience). If Tatas can sell power at Rs1.80 paise what these news papers have reported, why don't they do that to BSES and BEST? They will be able to reduce the rates of what they charge you and me."