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The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) hearing was
held on Monday in both the districts wherein proposed power tariff hike was put
forth. As per the proposal 6 per cent tariff hike has been proposed from
domestic consumers in the first two slabs of 0 to 100 and 101 to 200 units
power consumption category, while overall hike of 3.48 % has been proposed,
informed Chief Electricity Engineer Stephen Fernandes during the hearing.
Fernandes further said that if approved by the commission, the new tariff will
be implemented from April 1, 2024.
He added that maximum that is around 4 lakh consumers in the
state fall within this bracket of 0 to 200 units. People from both the
districts as well as political leaders from opposition parties attended the
hearing and opposed the tariff hike. Political party leaders advised the government
to recover the pending dues to bridge the revenue gap.
Consumers also highlighted issued related to frequent
disruption in power supply. The department has proposed a hike in energy
charges of low tension domestic consumers from Rs 1.75/kWh to Rs 1.88/kWh for
0-100 units (12 paise hike), from Rs 2.6 to Rs 2.79/kWh (19 paise rise) for consumption between
101-200 units, from Rs 3.3/kWh to Rs 3.7/kWh for consumption between 201-300
units (40 paise hike), from Rs 4.4/kWh to Rs 4.9/kWh between 301-400 units (50
paise hike) and from Rs 5.1/kWh to Rs 5.8/kWh per unit for consumption above
400 units (70 paise hike).
It has also proposed a hike in energy charges for low
tension consumers in the commercial, industrial, hotel industries and
agricultural categories as well as for public lighting, hoardings and sign-
board and electric vehicle charging station categories. As per the petition,
the electricity department’s Net Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is estimated at
Rs 3,057.5 crore for 2024-25. While revenue from sales at existing tariff will
be Rs 2,442.60 crore creating a revenue gap of Rs 614.94 crore. Even with the
budgetary support of Rs 414.73 crore committed by the govt, there will be a
balance gap of Rs 200.22 crore states the department’s petition places before
the JERC.
From the proposed tariff hike on LT consumers, the
electricity department expects to earn additional Rs 85 crore, while the time
of day (ToD) tariff is expected to fetch another Rs 115.3 crore for the dept.
Goa Forward Party formally objected to the proposal to
increase Power Tariff. GFP also submitted memorandum to JERC at Panaji. GFP
chief secretary Durgadas Kamat said that government should focus on recovering
arrears which is more than to the tune of 200Cr. Don’t burden the common man
with the hike said Goa Forward Gen Secretary Durgadas Kamat
