PANJIM: Power consumers received a virtual shock as the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) has increased electricity tariff from April 1, with an average increase of 6.4 per cent which is higher than 4.95 percent proposed by the Electricity Department.
Electricity Department, in its petition to JERC, had estimated a revenue gap of Rs 473 crore for 2018-19 of which it proposed to meet through budgetary support and through a tariff hike.
Speaking to Herald, Chief Electrical Engineer (CEC), Neelkanth Reddy said, “JERC in their latest order has approved an average increase of 6.4 per cent in power tariff from April 1. The Electricity Department during the public hearing had submitted a proposal before the JERC to hike the tariff by 4.95 per cent to fill the budget gap of Rs 79 crore, while the rest Rs 394 crore would be settled in the budgetary allocation.”
He added, “The reason they did not agree to the 4.95 per cent hike was that they found that the tariff was very low compared to other States and mainly because of the deficit, they wanted to subside it. The hike will be 11 per cent for domestic consumers, 4 per cent for commercial and 5.5 percent for industries.”
According to the new tariffs approved by the JERC, domestic consumers will be worst hit as the increase in tariff is comparatively much higher than commercial and industrial connections. Domestic consumers in some categories will now have to pay somewhere between Rs 5 and Rs 25 extra on fixed monthly charges and up to 40 paisa extra for every unit of energy consumed.
However, the JERC in its order also stated, “In case the government had not provided the budgetary support, then an average increase of 19.43% over and above the approved tariff increase would have been required, which would have led to a tariff shock to consumers.”
The first meeting of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) in South Goa, in January had seen angry outbursts from consumers over the Electricity Department’s proposal to increase the power tariff by 4.95 per cent.
A large portion of the department’s consumers, that is 55 per cent, belong to the industrial category while 28 per cent are domestic and 14 per cent commercial. Agriculture, public lighting and other categories constitute one percent each.
