Team Herald
PANJIM: Power consumers will again get inflated power bills as Electricity Department will be levying higher fuel and power purchase cost adjustment (FPPCA) charges to recover the deficit.
FPPCA charges are added on a per unit basis to each power bill over and above the regular tariff, and are the difference between per unit actual cost of power purchase and per unit approved cost of power purchase.
According to a recent government notification, the electricity consumption tariff rates will be increased from October to December.
Speaking to Herald, Chief Electrical Engineer (CEE) Neelkantha Reddy said, “The FPPCA charges for every quarter are being determined based on the formula approved by JERC vide order dated June 27, 2012 as per the directions given by the Commission. These are applicable to all consumer categories except for Below Poverty Line (BPL). The cost of power for the three months of July, August and September was Rs 297 crore.”
He added, “The levy of FPPCA for 2nd quarter of FY 2017-18 (July, 2017 to September, 2017) will be levied in the month of October, 2017 to be billed in November 2017, November 2017 to be billed in December, 2017 & December 2017 to be billed in January 2018. First the government used to decide on the rates but now the rates are fixed by JERC,” Reddy said.
According to the new tariff, domestic and non-commercial customers will have to pay 30 paise per unit for up to 100 units consumed, 33 paise per unit from 101 till 200 units, 42 paise per unit for consumption from 201 to 300 while for consumption above 400 units the customer will be charged 59 paise per unit.
For commercial connections, customers will have to pay 61 paise per unit for 100 units, 72 paise per unit from 101 till 200 consumption units, 74 paise per unit for consumption from 201 to 400 units, while for above 400 units the customer will be charged 92 paise per unit.
As per the JERC, the values of the ‘K’ factor applicable for the different consumer categories for use in the FPPCA formula are as specified in the respective tariff order for the financial year. Also JERC in its tariff order approves specific cost of power purchase in paisa per unit. Every quarterly bulk power purchase cost is computed and anything goes above/below the approved cost has to be recovered/refunded from/to consumers in accordance with the terms and conditions specified in the FPPCA formula.
Consumers during the last quarter had gheraoed Reddy for over an hour with a demand to withdraw the FPPCA charges levied. Some had claimed that instead of getting monthly bills, they receive inflated bills of accumulated amounts at an interval of two-three months, which affect their budget, especially the industrial sector, which have had to face a huge burden.
