Telangana: Discoms to levy 30 paise per unit FCA surcharge

Hyderabad: While the Telangana power distribution companies have spared consumers from a tariff during the election year, they are prepared to collect a fuel cost adjustment (FCA) from April.

The discoms recently issued a draft order to collect a maximum of 30 paisa per unit as FCA on a monthly basis beginning April. The move is expected to burden the consumers by Rs 22,000 crore.

The FCA is the amount that is added to the electricity bill based on the price of fuel or coal, which fluctuates based on demand and supply.

The discoms were burdened by the rising cost of coal for thermal power plants and power procurement from India Energy Exchange (IEX) every day. The Centre also directed states to revise electricity rates on a monthly basis.

The southern and northern discoms forecast and annual revenue requirement (ARR) of 71,618 million units for the coming fiscal year, and submitted it to the TS Electricity Regulatory Commission for 2023-24.

TSERC chairman T. Sriranga Rao stated that the commission was awaiting a response from the state government regarding the collection of FCA surcharge from consumers. The commission has approved the proposal.

Discoms were directed by the commission to deposit the FCA surcharge amount in a separate bank account and submit the details once a month.

The CPM was vehemently opposed to the proposed FCA collection. Tammineni Veerabhadram, CPM state secretary, stated that consumers were burdened by an increase in electricity charges last year and demanded that TSERC rollback its orders in this regard.