Jolt for people as regulator okays AP power tariff hike

Tirupati: In a rude shock to domestic power consumers in the State, the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) on Wednesday announced a hike in electricity charges for domestic consumers by Rs. 0.91 and Rs. 1.57 per unit, if their monthly consumption exceeds 30 units (31-75 units) and 125 units (126-225 units), respectively.

“At present, the power tariff for a consumption of 0-30 units per month is Rs. 1.45 per unit (KW/hr). It will now become Rs. 1.90 per unit. Similarly, the power tariff for a consumption of 226-400 units per month is Rs. 9.20 and it will now become Rs. 9.75 per unit,” APERC chairman Justice (Retd) C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy told reporters at S.V. University’s senate hall in Tirupati on Wednesday.

The APERC issued the hike order after examining the proposals submitted by the three distribution licensees including APSPDCL, APEPDCL and APCPDCL. With the increase in the tariffs to the domestic consumers, the DISCOMs would get additional revenue of about Rs. 1400 crores.

The revised slab wise hike in electricity charges have been proposed as follows. The traffic for 0-30 units have been hiked from Rs. 1.45 to Rs. 1.90; 31-75 units hiked from Rs. 2.09 to Rs.3, 76-125 units hiked from Rs. 3.10 to Rs. 4.50; 126-225 units hiked from Rs. 4.43 to Rs. 6, 226-400 units hiked from Rs. 7.59 to Rs. 8.75 and above 400 units have been hiked from Rs.9.20 to Rs.9.75.

“Even after the rationalisation of tariffs, though it appears that there is some hike to some sections, these tariffs are relatively at a reasonable level compared to many neighbouring states. The tariffs for the consumption up to 75 units are still much below 50 percent of the average cost of supply (Rs. 6.98 per unit) and the consumer number falling under this range is 50 percent of total domestic consumers”, the APERC Chairman said.   

Meanwhile, the three distribution licensees have projected an aggregate revenue requirement of Rs. 45,398.66 crore with a combined deficit of Rs. 10932.99 crore at current tariff and a deficit of Rs. 10,045.61 crore with the proposed tariff hike to domestic class of consumers. DISCOMs proposed to fill this gap with full cost tariff recoveries as per the G.O. Rt 161 and showed a net gap ‘zero’ in their fillings.

While many stakeholders expressed apprehensions about full cost tariffs proposed by DISCOMs, the APERC, after due diligence, has determined the ARR for the three DISCOMs at Rs. 45,972.70 crores with a net deficit of Rs. 11,123.21 crores after taking into consideration the additional revenue due to tariff rationalisation approved for the domestic class of consumers, the chairman informed.