Hyderabad: Power consumers of all categories would not be burdened in any way by a hike in tariff, announced the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission, in orders that will be applicable for five months.
The commission did not accept the proposal of discoms to increase the fixed charges for consumers from Rs.10 to Rs.50. It also ruled out changes in tariff during peak hours.
The commission chairman Ranga Rao announced the decisions in response to eight petitions filed by distribution companies (discoms) here on Monday.
Stating that the commission was to come up with the tariff order in the next 40 days, Ranga Rao said that the decision was based on the financial economy of power utilities, interests of consumers and subsidy support from the state government. The fixed charges would continue at Rs.10 for domestic consumers, he said.
The proposal to increase the tariff for poultry and goat farms has been rejected. The commission also rejected the proposal for a hike in the HT category. Meanwhile, dues from the state government are around Rs.25,000 crore. In order to reduce the losses of discoms, the state government must clear the dues as a priority, the commission observed.
It may be noted that the state government had increased the subsidy commitment by Rs.2374.70 crore for the next fiscal, which is an increase of around 26 per cent over the previous year. For the domestic and agriculture consumers, the state government had made a subsidy commitment of Rs.1,499.52 crore for the next fiscal.
Meanwhile, the commission increased subsidy for consumers from rupee one to Rs.1.50 per unit in non-peak hours, which would benefit the consumers and help discoms to retain the consumers. Weavers have been allowed to use more horsepower capacity from 10 hp to 25 hp with no additional burden and it would help them to shift to power-looms.
The commission has accepted the grid support charges. The ERC pronouncements are applicable for the next five months and the power utilities must present their recommendations for the next year in the stipulated period in November for the ERC to help take its decisions in time.
The State government had given a subsidy of Rs.11,499.52 crore to discoms, which made proposals for Rs.57,728.90 crore. The ERC accepted their proposals for Rs 54,183.28 crore, Ranga Rao said.
As against the total revenue gap at proposed tariffs of Rs.13,022.25 crore claimed by the discoms, the commission has approved the revenue gap of Rs.11,156.40 crore for the next financial year. In order to promote electric vehicles, the commission has removed the fixed charges for EV charging stations.
