Moderate power tariff hike

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission has announced hike in power tariff by 4.42 per cent. In the tariff order released on Friday, the Commission announced that though the overall hike works out to 4.42 per cent while the average increase would be 1.3 per cent for the entire domestic category. The commission spared 80 lakh domestic consumers consuming up to 200 units per month.

Ismail Ali Khan, Chairman of Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission, in its maiden order after the new State has been created, said that the Telangana Government has agreed to provide a subsidy of Rs 4,227 crore resulting in additional revenue of Rs 816 crore from new tariff.

In the tariff order, the TSERC has spared power consumers consuming up to 200 units per month, agriculture and cottage industries (18 lakh consumers), and small non-domestic consumers consuming less than 50 units (around 6 lakh consumers). For domestic consumers, in the 401-500 units and above 500 units, they have been merged into a single slab of consumption above 400 units. The State has 1.2 crore consumers.

The Commission said the APERC agreed to the state government’s proposal to provide Rs 4,227 crore as subsidy on free power supply to the two Discoms. It also accepted to reduce tariff prices by Rs 2 per unit to poultry industry, which was given agriculture status recently, benefiting 4,267 consumers. This would put a burden of Rs 32 crore on the discoms. The annual revenue approved works out to Rs 23,416 crore and the revenue at approved tariff is Rs 19,189 crore, with a subsidy of Rs 4227 crore, leaving a gap of Rs 816 crore.