Hyderabad: There may be no increase in the power tariff for the third year running. Power distribution companies, the southern and northern discoms, have requested the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) to give them time till March 31 to file the Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for 2019-2020.
The ARR should have been submitted by the end of November but the discoms had requested the TSERC for time till December 31 due to the Assembly elections. They have again approached the commission for more time.
The discoms are running in a deficit. In 2018-19, the discoms said they were facing a deficit of Rs 9,700 crore. The regulatory commission, after examining the figures, petted it at Rs 5,900 crore. The government subsequently allocated Rs 4,950 crore to the distribution companies in the Budget. The 24-hour power supply for the farm sector which began last year and the regularisation of services of employees has created a burden on the two discoms.
An official from the southern discom said, “If the government compensates us for the deficit, there will be no need to enhance tariff. If we submit the ARR now and the government does not allocate money, we have to face heavy losses. So we have decided to wait till the end of March. We expect that there may not be any increase in power tariff.”
