2023 Indiana Code › Title 8. Utilities and Transportation › Article 1. Utilities Generally › Chapter 17.5. Merger or Consolidation of Rural Electric Membership Corporations and Telephone Cooperative Corporations › 8-1-17.5-24. Corporation to Provide Reasonably Adequate Service; Reasonable and Just Charges; Return of Excess Revenues to Members; Rural Utility Service Borrowers

Sec. 24. (a) A surviving corporation or successor corporation formed under this chapter shall be required to furnish reasonably adequate:
(1) retail electric service or communications service, or both; and
(2) facilities for furnishing any service described in subdivision (1) that is provided by the surviving corporation or successor corporation.
The charge made by a surviving corporation or successor corporation for any service rendered or to be rendered, either directly or in connection with the service, must be nondiscriminatory, reasonable, and just, and every discriminatory, unjust, or unreasonable charge for a service provided under this section is prohibited and declared unlawful.
(b) Reasonable and just charges for service within the meaning of this section are charges that produce sufficient revenue:
(1) to pay all legal and other necessary expense incident to the operation of the surviving corporation's or successor corporation's systems, including maintenance costs, operating charges, upkeep, repairs, depreciation and amortization, and interest charges on bonds or other obligations;
(2) to provide a sinking fund for the liquidation of bonds or other evidences of indebtedness;
(3) to provide adequate funds to be used as working capital, as well as funds for making extensions and replacements; and
(4) for the payment of any taxes that may be assessed against the corporation or its property.
(c) Charges made under this section must produce an income sufficient to maintain the surviving corporation's or successor corporation's property in a sound physical and financial condition to render adequate and efficient service. Any rate too low to meet the requirements of this section is unlawful.
(d) Revenues and receipts not needed for the purposes described in this section, or not needed as reserves for those purposes, shall be returned to the members on a pro rata basis according to the amounts paid by members for:
(1) retail electric service; or
(2) communications service;
as appropriate. Amounts returned under this subsection may be either in cash or in abatement of current charges for the services described in this subsection, as the board may decide.
(e) As used in subsection (f), "financial assistance" means:
(1) a loan or loan guarantee; or
(2) a lien accommodation provided to secure a loan made by another lender;
that is made by the Rural Utility Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (RUS) or by the Rural Telephone Bank.
(f) As used in subsections (g) and (h), "RUS borrower" means a surviving corporation or successor corporation formed under this chapter that is the recipient of financial assistance from the Rural Utility Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (RUS).
(g) In determining rates under this section, an RUS borrower must charge rates sufficient to enable the RUS borrower to:
(1) satisfy the RUS borrower's reasonable expenses and obligations; and
(2) repay the full amount of any financial assistance and the interest on the financial assistance.
(h) As long as there remains any unpaid part of any financial assistance associated with the property of an RUS borrower, the rates of the RUS borrower must be set at a level sufficient to repay the financial assistance, regardless of the full or partial retirement of the property or any other change in the status of the property.
As added by P.L.18-2010, SEC.1.