Electric Shock: Pay more for the power cuts

That’s Bescom’s way. While it continues to leave citizens in the dark and sweating, with its sometimes scheduled, sometimes random power cuts, the power distribution company will begin to levy higher charges for electricity – ranging from 15 paise to 50 paise per unit – starting from April 1. Will it now please move with equal alacrity to ensure 24/7 power supply to Bengalureans.

With a hotter than ever summer setting in, Bengalureans are using airconditioning and fans as never before. And now they will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for it all with the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) upping the power tariff by 30 to 35 paise per unit for all domestic consumers both in urban and rural areas of the state with effect from April 1 this year.

Although the ESCOMS had suggested a uniform hike of 102 paise per unit in tariff for all categories of consumers, the KERC has allowed an average tariff hike of between 15 and 50 paise per unit for the entire spectrum of consumers, ranging from low tension to high tension, commercial to residential and industrial to agricultural, covering irrigation pumpsets and the Bhagya Jyothi and Kuteer Jyothi schemes.

“The revised tariff will come into effect for electricity consumed from the first meter reading date falling on or after April 1,”  KERC chairman, M K Shankarlinge Gowda said in a press statement on Wednesday.

The commission claimed it had no choice but to hike the tariff as it was buying power at high cost after the breakdown of the Sharavathy Hydro Power Station, its attempts to recover past regulatory assets worth Rs 1105 crore and increase in power purchase cost due to the additional coal cess levied by the Centre as well as increase in cost of operation of transmission and distribution utilities.
The revised High-Tension (HT) tariff for government hospitals and hospitals run by charitable institutions as well as educational institutions belonging to government and aided institutions is now Rs 6 (from Rs 5.60) for the first one lakh units and Rs 6.50 (from Rs 6.10) for consumption beyond one lakh units.
The revised HT tariff for private educational institutions and private hospitals is Rs 7 per unit (from Rs 6.60) for the first one lakh units and Rs 7.50 (from Rs 7.10) for consumption beyond one lakh units.

Increase in power tariff will only add to woes of consumers: FKCCI
Relieved that the KERC has not accepted a hike of Rs 1.02 per unit for all categories of consumers as suggested by the ESCOMs, the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, feels the average increase of Rs 0.48 paise per unit that it has allowed is not small either. “The federation had objected to any increase in tariff and used the services of Mercados Energy Private Limited to demonstrate with facts and figures that the proposed increase in tariff was unjustified. But the KERC has only partially accepted our reasoning,” said Mr Tallam R. Dwarakanath, president, FKCCI.

“The increase in power tariff will only add to the woes of the consumers, particularly of industry and business as only recently the property tax was hiked along with the guidance value and BWSSB too has almost doubled its connection charges,” he said. Lamenting that the increase in power tariff  had come despite the nightmarish power outages suffered by the people of Karnataka, he regretted that unscheduled power cuts had become the order of the day. “People have stopped believing assurances that the power situation will improve. They feel there is worse ahead due to the water situation and technical problems at the power stations. The current increase in tariff amounts to exploitation of the people,” Mr Dwaraknath charged.

Power tariff for water supply
The commission has increased the tariff for Low-Tension (LT) water supply installations by 50 paise per unit, making it Rs 3.90 per unit from the existing Rs 3.40. The hike for High Tension (HT) water supply installations is 40 paise per unit, up from Rs 4.10 per unit to Rs 4.50 per unit.

Concessional tariff for LED streetlights
KERC has extended a promotional tariff of Rs 4.50 per unit for local bodies using energy efficient LED/induction lamps for their streetlights. For others, the revised tariff is Rs 5.50 per unit.

Green tariff
A Green Tariff of 50 paise per unit over and above the applicable tariff for HT industries and HT commercial consumers will continue in order to promote purchase and use of energy from renewable sources.

KERC survey on IP sets in state
A survey based on Global-Positioning-System (GPS) will be done over six months to weed out irrigation pumpsets that are defunct and still claiming subsidy. “We would like to arrive at the correct number of functional IP-sets in the state to make sure the subsidy is not being misused. We believe there are at least three to four lakh non-functional IP-sets in the state still receiving subsidy,” Mr Shankarlinge Gowda explained.

Price cap on short-term power
The commission has continued the price cap of Rs 4.50 per unit for power to be procured by ESCOMs on a short term basis. The ESCOMs will require its approval to procure power above the price cap.